If it were left up to me, I'd reinvent the calendar, making it a board game of sorts. I'd keep the Gregorian calendar intact, save for one small exception: I'd add dice. After the point when Autumn besieges Summer, I'd roll the dice and hope to land on Halloween (if necessary, I'd allow "do overs" until Halloween was achieved). Then, I'd surely pray to the Season gods for a nice, high roll so that I may leap to the new year, never stepping foot on The Holiday Zone.
Ah, it's not that I'm against the holidays...
They have come to represent a season of "'tis too many" ...'tis too many bLiNkInG lights ...'tis too many twenty-four hour, "It's a Wonderful Life" marathons ...'tis too many powerful influences, dictating what ought to be. If you made the assumption that I lock the doors, draw the drapes, and surrender to the poems of Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath, allowing them to annihilate me, you were wrong (go back three spaces). I strive to make experiences positive. While that sensibility quakes my spirit, it also provides a means of reducing the number of antidepressants I add to the Wassail. Just kidding (I drink Hot Buttered Rum).
Hmmm... what to do to diffuse "'tis too many"...
In years past, I've attended La Posada (a lovely reenactment of the story of Christ's birth. La Posada takes place in the evening, on the river in San Antonio); I've volunteered; and I've sought beach solitude while hunting the symbolic sand dollar. This year, I reread O. Henry's, "The Gift of the Magi."
I like to define words by the people and the places and the things encompassing my world. Albeit quirky, this method brings energy to words, and commits them to my memory with more provocation than a dictionary ever could...
restless - the first paragraph of the first chapter of Herman Melville's, "The Whale"
beauty - my mom
love - any Harlequin romance novel (threw this in to see if you were paying attention)
will - Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
irony - "The Gift of the Magi"
Irony. Sacrifice. Love.
I hope you have an opportunity to (re)read Magi. It may add spirit to the "dreaded" holidays. And, who knows, by this time next year, I may have reinvented the calendar... A Board Game of Sorts.