Packing Away

They say that this day is the worst day of the year, the day that people feel terminally depressed, that marriages break up, that people realise that their lives are nowt but a collation of successive miseries.

I don't feel that way, to me this day has elements of regret, tinges of unease, wisps of melancholia but on the whole it is just another monday in January.

It is the day we traditionally break down the christmas decorations, later than some folk but my birthday is on the 5th, epiphany is on the 6th, and this year that co-incided with the boys returning to studies in Scotland. There is always that sense of slight sadness as the decorations are packed away, the ornaments wrapped (in the Scotsman from 1988, frugally reused annually) the figures of the passebre boxed and the stables and animals stowed.

What I try to feel is that it is the beginning rather than an end, the beginning of looking forward to replaying old traditions next year , for the younger members of the family to experience the growing excitement as the tree goes up again, the reassuring routine played out once more. there is of course always the feeling that each year may see the loss of grandparents and facing that is painful, but balancing that out a new niece (or for me rather a great great niece) was born in Australia on the 4th, we have friends coming to visit and spring is round the corner.

So 7th January is the new New Year, off with the old, on with the new, fresh challenges ,new hobbies, fresh fields and optimism abounding.

And not least another 365 days of trying to find a decent photograph to post before midnight!