Grump

It's Monday morning.  My one day that I generally get to sleep in.  BUT thanks to a combination of my asthma deciding to go into hyper overdrive and my roommate's cat deciding that 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM are the perfect times to engage in aggressive negotiations over territory, my generally blissful eight hours of Sunday to Monday sleep was turned into a string of abruptly interrupted naps. This morning I am tired, wheezy and grumpy.  Add that to the steady undercurrent of annoyance that the holidays bring out in me and you can put my mood somewhere between disgruntled and downright curmudgeonly.

I have a mind of two moods this time of year.  I love winter.  I enjoy the settling in of the cold and the deeper darkness of the night.  The Winter Solstice is my favorite holiday and is generally spent with friends with who I attempt to make it through the longest night (I've about a 50% success rate).  In the morning I will watch the sunrise over the ocean with many others from the area who gather each year to do the same.  I like the quiet introspection that winter brings.  I am a fan of winter clothes and pile on the sweaters, hats, mittens, woolly socks and snuggly scarves.  Warming winter food and drink fill my kitchen with the scents of soups and tea.  

Then there is the part of me that looks at the excessive amount of consumption that occurs this time of year. Six weeks of buy, buy, buy at an average rate of $843 per person spent on one gifts for one winter holiday or another.  I look out the window where I see a drizzly day with rain falling instead of snow and I can't help but think of how much our cultural dedication to accumulation has impacted the climate to the point that the winters of my childhood are well on their way to becoming the stuff that tall tales are made of.   

I know that the only thing I have absolute control over here is myself and generally I do a fairly decent job of reminding myself of the good things I have but when I'm also operating on less than optimal sleep it becomes a bit more difficult.

So I searched the internet in the hopes of finding something positive to share and I came across a video about the Winter Solstice in Bolivia where the day has been declared a national holiday (though for them will occur in June).  It reminds me to keep in mind what is really important to me this time of year. The sense of renewal that the Solstice and making it to the other side of longest night brings, the reminder that things can and do change, and of course hope that they will change for the better.

YouTube won't let me embed the video in the post so you will just have to follow the link here:  

Bolivan Natives Celebrate the Winter Solstice