According to hearsay and annual reports from this very blog (trust neither) January 6 is the saddest day of the year. That makes sense to me – the Christmas and New Year’s season are finished – Little Christmas is done – and most of us are back to school and work at the point where winter has only just begun. The long haul begins in daunting, depressing and disheartening fashion. A spell of post-holiday blues is to be expected, though this year, perhaps because the holidays weren’t a time of celebratory shenanigans, I’m feeling less blue than usual. In fact, ever since 2025 dawned, I’ve felt a calm and sense of hopefulness that I’m attributing to the (deliberated chosen) lack of news on television as well as a renewed focus on daily meditation. Along with a new book and intent on being more mindful, this year has started off in calm and tranquil waters. May this be a reminder that so much of life is how we perceive it, and how we choose to respond to that perception. In other words, we have more control over what happens to us than we think.
To that end, in an effort to combat what is typically perceived as such a dreadful day, I will be focusing on finding moments of peace and prettiness, and taking any sort of dismal news that comes my way as a minor bump, easy to navigate around or roll right over. Rolling with the punches and traveling with the tide is so much easier than constantly battling against it. It doesn’t negate the opportunity to address things later on, and sometimes simply sleeping on a prickly issue blunts the sharpest points of said pricks. For today, I’m setting down the battle-ax and refusing to issue any battle-cries.
Let us find comfort in the day, and in each other.
