When Christmas songs are no longer playing wistfully on the radio, and you cease to hear familiar or timeless melodies of past Christmases, what is there to do?
You, the reader of this blog, may say that there's always New Year's Eve, that there is still one excuse left this year for us to keep singing the songs and keep the Christmas decorations up, almost as if the holidays were to last forever...But doesn't that feel like we're cheating ourselves, that we are no longer embracing the precious values of how Christmas only comes once a year?
This sometimes worries me to the point that I make the decision to never put out the spirit and light of my Christmas tree that sits proudly in my living room, because I never want Christmas to end, and because I--like everybody else I'm sure--don't want the happiness and sleigh bells to die out into the daily routines of what we call life.
But then I think about how this horrible yet strengthening transition is not our time to suffer, but is merely our opportunity to cherish the times we had in the past few weeks of Christmas season, and to value the things we have in our lives everyday just as much as we value the carolers and Christmas movies.
It allows us to stop ourselves from taking our lives for granted. It stops us from becoming greedy and wanting more and more, such as if one were upset after Christmas because no more Christmas presents appeared magically under their tree.
Even though I admit I am listening to a Christmas CD right now, I am listening to it because I want to enjoy the last few days of the season where anything is possible and where everything comes in to the best of light and in the very least of shadow. I believe that after new year's eve has passed, I will be able to put myself together and find happiness and cheer in everything that I do, despite the lack of red and green that I may see from then on.
Bean out.
