The days immediately after a holiday can be a letdown: have you already broken a resolution or two? Have the decorations come down? Has the bubbly lost its fizz? It doesn’t have to signify an immediate loss of the meaning that was worth celebrating in the first place.
Several years ago, I bought a metal “JOY” sign when I was sweeping through a home store in December. It was an impulse buy, and I took it home and stuck in my front window. It had been a particularly rough year, and the straightforward sentiment was just right for the moment.
Come January, I moved the sign to a visible place in my living room, where I could see it every day. That one word has become a year-round mantra, even a mission statement, and has had a subtle yet profound effect on my approach to life. Joy isn’t a word I thought about much before this little piece of deco came into my life, but it holds such a straightforward, universal value that embracing this one object has elevated the sentiment beyond the seasonal.
So for 2023, I challenge you to find one thing, one symbol or one idea that meant something to you this season. Find a way to carry it forward. Keep the spirit flowing, if only in a small way.
Every little bit can make the new year better, brighter and peppered with more bits of goodness!
