4 And finally, I have an entire new year staring at me, challenging me to just try to mess with it. I might lift my head to think of that for around a second, and then fall back into a wondrous slumber.
5 And yet, I like it.
6 January to me is more of a break than all the major holidays put together. For a teacher, it's especially nice.
7 Think about it. Finals give us three straight days of nothing but long, quiet stretches to get a stream of work done, and long afternoons of glorious, dreamlike tedium.
8 Yesterday I spent the entire day getting done what I couldn't get done in the entire month of December, and partially November.
9 And those months are spent running about, eating, buying things, visiting, drinking, eating, buying things, eating, drinking, visiting, partying, resting, driving, buying things, drinking, visiting, driving, eating...you get the idea. By the time the New Year arrives, it's like this huge hangover from a macabre Mardi Gras.
10 And then we dread January. We dread the first week back from all of that. We feel that we have rested and that now we must return to work, or to school, or to whatever it is we spent our lives normally doing.
11 But January comes in on a tacky ball drop in New York, and all the hoopla that defines us all as grotesque American Idiots, and then it goes away like a fool's smile . The first day back to our routine is a dreaded time.
12 In a short period of time, we find ourselves back into a less stressful and much more serene normalcy, where work or school becomes our everyday lives once more, and we begin to re-enter a more normal routine.
13 In teaching, we get those long periods of sweet silence, followed by long afternoons, and we even get back-to-back three-day weekends with no hoopla attached. We can sip tea and listen to some calm music. We can carry on a normal conversation instead of shouting our conversations in order to keep on top of the occasion.
14 Everything slows down. Storms come, but they go away, leaving our familiar sky with puffy clouds and a sweet sun that comes in and warms our faces and our souls.
15 It's just a nice month.
16 And it's followed by February, also a sweet month. Short. Hints of Spring. Groundhogs. And for us in education, another week off, only this one with no strings.
17 I always welcomed January. When I directed shows, January was always the month of rest. No shows, no auditions, just afternoons to spend at Starbuck's, or with family or friends, but without all the demands and insanity of the holidays.
18 It's a time to reflect, to breathe, and to come alive again.
19 It's just nice.
20 It's a great month for hugs.
21 Hug someone. You'll see what I mean.
22 That's about it. I need to lumber back into my cave for a well-earned sleep.
23 Sleepy time.
24 Have a drowsy day.
25 Peace.
~H~
1 Here's something.
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