The Season of Excess

The holiday season is the season of muchness.

  • Invitations to parties and gatherings

  • Food and drink at said parties and gatherings

  • Requests to donate and give and serve

  • Gift exchanges and ornament swaps

  • Cookie exchanges and wine exchanges with the neighborhood

  • Santa at every store smiling at the children whose eyes gleam with more presents

The muchness is felt and seen. In our calendars. Around our waist. And in our credit card statements.

We say yes and move with as much grace as we can muster, keeping our eye on the prize.

December 26th.

We sigh out sweet relief that we made it. Just one more glittery party to hurdle (NYE), then it is time for a break and a change.

But our season of excess lives next door to our season of change (or the hope of change). We exit the door of one only to enter the door of the other. The transition zone is very small so there is little time and space to let the dust settle and gain some clarity before we enter the house of change and restoration.

The proverbial house that is our calendar, slowly turns over.

January 1

The season of doing it differently.

Yet something feels heavy in this season when it should feel light and free, full of opportunity and optimism. Our bodies are squooshy. Our credit cards are maxed out. And our homes? Well they are messy.

We declare change is coming (!!) to our health, to our finances, and to our mess. We carve out a little time to draft our plan with so much intent. We write it on sticky notes and place it around the house.

We hold money meetings with the family to tell them we are cutting back.

We sign up for the monthly membership at the yoga studio.

And we buy another book to walk us through how to turn our chaos into order.

Enough is enough and the time is now.

Yet, boundaries are easy to design and create, but the challenge comes in honoring them.

Our “no” muscle begins to tire and we find ourselves sliding back into familiar territory. We let ourselves off the hook here and there, until we realize we never really got started so what’s the point anyway.

It’s no wonder you struggle to get the new you off the ground. She wasn’t allowed any transition space from muchness to newness; instead of giving her time to settle down, you began to demand (a lot, might I add) from her.

She wants to pivot but give her a few minutes.

Let’s follow this season of excess with a season of pause. Move those resolutions and goals to February or even March. She will be oh-so-ready to go by then.

Jennifer Burnham