January 2nd is my favorite day of the year.  I mean, I don’t want to get all scroogey about it, but personally, I find all the buy-the-perfect-present pressure a little much.  I have a hard time keeping the kitchen clean, let alone organizing an orgasmic cadeau for every special person in my life.  Forget wrapping them well… and cards?  I’m lucky if I have a sharpie lying around to scribble "ox jess" on each one.  Add to that the pressure of delivering on time, and I’m bordering on a cardiac event.  It’s only around 5:30 p.m. on December 24th that I fill with Christmas cheer and actually get into the vibe of the season.   

My younger sister Catherine, who juggles two kids under four, a husband, a household and writes a column three times a week for The Toronto Star (check her out)… she LOVES Christmas!!  Has half her presents bought by mid-October!  Cracks open cookbooks and bakes newfangled cookies!!!  You know what Catherine did on her year of Canadian maternity leave?  The second leave, when she had TWO kids to cart around?  Oh, START A FARMER’S MARKET!!   Oy.  When I try to run my "but it’s my birthday the day after Christmas!" excuse past her when comparing our polar opposite attitudes toward the season,  I get no sympathy from her.  She was born on my sixth birthday!

So there’s yin and yang in a nutshell. Vive la difference.  I did manage to get things in the mail for her kids, and I’m so glad I did.   And on the day itself, we could all just relax and enjoy the spirit of community and the lovely beginning of the post-solstice boomerang.

I’m still cleaning up the kitchen, but it’s early January, and this is how I like life.  Simple.  Less pressure.  Just each one of us being ourselves in our own little rhythms.  Dirty kitchens.  Clean kitchens.  High drama.  Low drama.  No biggie.  Just nature doing its thing through all of us.

Because every day is precious.  And every person in our lives.  And every meal can build us up, or tear us down.  And extending our vibes out into the world is a daily practice.  Forget presents!  Practice presence.

Happy New Year

Jessica

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Blog, My Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.