The Quiet of January

Well, we're a week into the New Year and I haven't posted a thing.  Actually, I haven't done much of anything this week outside of work and caring for my son.  I have been enjoying the quiet of January.  With husband out of town until Monday, I'm shirking a vast majority of my household responsibilities (but I'm sure I'll have to rearrange a few pieces of furniture in his absence!).  I feel a little beat up from all of the social engagements that December held.  Don't get me wrong, I love a party, but I feel like I needed this week to chill out, leave a mess in my wake, cook at home and read the stack of books that have been so patiently waiting for me on my nightstand.

After spending New Year's Day at a four-hour yoga workshop with my closest friends, I felt free and limber and open to all of the possibilities a new year can bring.  I am slowing reorganizing my home and making task lists for household projects.  I'm earmarking furniture that needs to be moved and/or sold.  I'm re-potting plants and purging closets.  It feels like a cleansing ritual and I am quite sure that January is the best month to do this in.  Spring cleaning seems like an interruption, but January cleaning seems like a rite of passage into the new year.

This week has been an exercise in being really present in my day-to-day life.  The heap of clothes on the bathroom floor...they can wait to be washed.  The dishes in the sink...they can wait a little longer, too.  The slew of random items in G's room that need to be saved/thrown away/returned to nature will have to wait another day.  I have so many pictures and thoughts to post about the holidays, but they just have to wait until I'm ready to sit down, dig in, reflect, edit the photos that go with those thoughts and share here with the few friends that read this blog.

Happy January to you.  I hope you embark on a project that helps you to slow down and savor the beginning of this new year.