I went to bed last night feeling incredibly sad.
Sad that the magic of the holiday season was coming to an end. Sad that my husband was going back to work after getting to hang out with him all day every day for the past two weeks. Sad (and admittedly a little nervous) about tackling daily life with three kids on my own. Sad that I felt like all of the magic of December was coming to an end: all of the excitement and newness of adding a new baby to our family… all of the freedom from work and obligations… all of the fun of seeing our extended family… and all of the little moments we had as an immediate family because we had few places we had to be besides together in our house. This was by far my favorite Christmas season I’ve ever had… and it just … well… it just felt like it was all coming to a screeching halt.
And when I woke up today and did my normal early-morning Facebook scroll… I saw that I wasn’t alone in that sentiment. Posts about the “ugh”-ness of having to go back to “normal” life were ALL OVER my newsfeed. All over it. Here we are just the fourth day into a new calendar year… a time when we’re supposed to feel hopeful for what’s to come and excited about making changes … and we’re all just pissed about what’s over instead of appreciative that it happened… and accepting that we’re just going to go back to a daily routine that is apparently mundane and unfulfilling.
Isn’t that a problem???
Is it not a problem that we look at “normal” as being a negative? That “normalcy” … the place that we exist for 90-some% of the year that’s not a vacation or a holiday… is something that we cringe to go back to and refer to as a “grind?”
I see a problem. And I’m looking right at the problem in the reflection of this computer screen right now. And so are you.