Surfeit and Lack

My Thanksgiving weekend was spent basking in leisure, eating wonderful food, and relating with friends and family in several locations. It was wonderful! Highlights included an impromptu foot-stamping jam session with flute, guitar, bouzouki, and harp that resounded through my parent's old Victorian house, all the potatoes and gravy I could eat, and the manifest charms of a cat so sleepy she couldn't hold her head up.

It was lovely, but it is over--leaving me feeling sludgy from unhealthy food, sluggish from lack of exercise, and sullen from too much talking and interaction. Normally this state finds me puzzled and gradually dissipates, only to be restored around Christmas time. But this year I don't want to spend a month and a half of my life under par. So I'm taking action! Peaceful, contemplative action.

This week the McIntyre household will be avoiding sweets and meat, eating lots of veggies, and enjoying simpler meals, to counteract the excess of the weekend. I am also planning to study and read a lot, take naps and hot baths, and forswear the TV and internet in favor of making music, writing, and just sitting to contemplate this constantly-changing life. Pots of herbal tea, my harp, and my yoga mat will be my companions.

There's a balance between surfeit and lack which I want to learn. Life is a series of small moments, building upon each other to create the kind of internal and external structure we present to ourselves and the world. This week, this moment, I choose simplicity.

How are you incorporating your holiday celebrations into your own life?