....ho hum

Yogis,
Thanksgiving is in the rear-view mirror and attention is turned to Christmas. Many know I like to put fences around the Christmas season. Two weeks before the big day I am ready to dive in and can stay comfortably until a few days after New Year's.

The only problem is ……I am married to Mr Christmas.

In his ideal world, the boxes come out of the attic before Thanksgiving. The tree is up and the house strewn with decorations for over a month. A difference we navigate each year.

Thursday he was itching to get the tree and start the process. I reminded him it was only December 4^th but off we went. I later heard the steps to the attic pulling down. ‘Let’s only put the Santas up on shelf this weekend’, I offer. Me picturing an easing in with a tradition I love.

I drive up to the house Friday to a Santa welcoming me home from the front steps. Hhhhmmm…….

Saturday I am woken by a song of the wind-up snow globe. As the day progresses, each time I enter a room I notice something has quietly arrived. A figurine here and a reindeer there. By evening the doors are adorned with new wreathes of fresh greens. It is now December 6^th. I notice my resistance. A tightening. Oh yes, I recognize you well.

It doesn’t feel good. Makes me terse.

That night I’m cooking dinner when I have an epiphany. What if I just let go? What if I allow the boundaries I arbitrarily set years ago to fall? I have a choice. Hold my ground or yield.

I chose yielding. Walked over turned on my speaker, chose a Christmas playlist and turned up the volume. It played through the evening and I found myself singing along. I felt my inner critic quieting.

Today my son came to help with outside lights. The big old fashioned colored bulbs. The tree will come in the house Wednesday, and she is a beauty.

Christmas may not be your trigger, but whenever that recognizable sense of resistance raises her head, know that you have a choice to release the reins. Every time.

Ho, ho, ho,
SARAH