Joyful January

January 2 ought to be known as Anticlimax Day.  The turkey is getting a little… ripe, the lights are coming down, the New Year’s Resolutions have already been broken, the batteries in the new toys have died.  The parties are over, the eggnog’s run out, the radio is playing the same old songs from October — well, September, maybe.  So now there’s nothing for it but to sink into joy.

Christmas is fun and splashy and distracting.  It’s happy.  This is happiness: 

January is slow and calm, a return to normal, the “big reveal” of how your heart was before the holiday madness.  Some see it is a let-down, but what if it is the best saved for last?  In January you can rest, take stock, appreciate, feel your life full.  This is joy:

Happiness: bubbly, shiny, peppy, laughing, spinning, dancing, merry, gone in a flash. Joy: deep, still, beautiful, haunting, persistent, light shining down into dark places.

May you have a truly joyful January.