Sunday 5 January 2014

The decorations are down...

Today, I took down all the Christmas decorations.

I find it a bitter-sweet moment every year; on the one hand I'm glad to get a bit of space back in the lounge when the tree goes outside, but the walls and shelves look awfully bare without the cards and decorations. There's also a distinct lack of sparkle - I find myself missing twinkling lights and glittering tinsel. Everywhere looks dull.

Following on from the glitz of December, January seems such a bleak month by comparison. And goodness knows, we've got terrible weather here in the UK that would make anybody feel depressed at the moment. My heart goes out to all those affected by flooding and tidal batterings. (Although there is a guilty little bit of me that is glad of the wind, because it means our wind turbine is generating lots of electricity.)

But the empty walls also made me think of a blank canvas; the year is stretching ahead in front of me, a thing of mystery and yet also twelve months with certain things already planned. My parents will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary; I will ski on a mountain for the first time; my daughter will sit her first GCSE exam, I'll visit the dentist in May and September, and my book will be published.

If I was thinking in writing terms, it would be like having a broad outline for a story. I'd know the rough shape of it - beginning, middle, end - and perhaps some of the events that get my characters from A to B. But until I started writing, I wouldn't know all the details that fit in-between. So it is with 2014.

I hope I manage to fill in the gaps and don't waste any of it.

4 comments:

  1. Happy New Year! I too am a little saddened when all of the glitz n' glitter come down, January is a bit of a dark month isn't it? It sounds like you'll be busy all year though so that's a plus, huh? I checked out your new site and I think it's fabulous! Yay you! :D

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    1. Aw, thanks, Mimi - glad you popped by the site! Hope all your plans for 2014 are shaping up too.

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  2. All down here too. Amazed that the decorations survive another year wrapped in yellowing newspaper (some must be almost 80 years old as belonged to grandmothers) in a cardboard box in the loft. So many memories packed away for another year. But I like your idea of a blank canvas (even tho I really don't like January!) and thinking of the coming year in those terms. Thanks for giving me a positive slant on what is often a difficult time of year for me. Hxx

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