For months we have been preparing for the big celebration, putting regular life on pause, pumping up our happy expectations. We cranked up cheery music, hung lights and ornaments, filled our stockings and fridges, piled presents under the tree. And now it’s over. Regular life comes flooding back with its anxieties and stresses, dullness and duties, and the only thing left to do is box up all our happiness for the long winter trudge. Some of us hold onto the decorations a little longer, maybe till New Year’s, clinging to the feelings that are quickly slipping away. Ordinary life feels so bereft in comparison, cold and heartless.
When I was a kid, the after-Christmas-slump was eased by the school holiday. As an adult, the after-party is a hangover of postponed tasks to catch up on. I want some fun to anticipate as an antidote for the disappointment of everyday life. But as I make the transition to reality, I sense the hollowness of my over-hyped Christmas. We tried to make it meaningful and rich with various spiritual practices, but for me, the oversold glitz from past decades sucked me in at last… or maybe sucked out the core of good we tried to foster, leaving it an empty make-believe.
Thankfully that good is not too far away for me to pull back in to reorient myself on solid ground, the rich goodness that lies in the gritty reality of a broken world. I feel myself stabilizing and getting my bearings. Life is rich in ways fantasy never is. It has weight and substance, meaning and direction, and a hope that does not disappoint because it is a grounded hope, not a Disneyland hope. Sobriety is so underrated!
Janathan Grace Reflections 
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