The holiday rush and scramble are over. The quiet, relative January calm brings a strange, almost primal urge for me to "nest". "Nest" is a term that I used while pregnant with my son nine years ago. It means to put things right, to clean and to purge unwanted items from the family "nest" in preparation for something new. I was pregnant at the same time as my close childhood friend, Jen. She would call me from Maryland to lament the urges she had to clean her baseboards while too pregnant to accomplish this while I confessed I was scrubbing out the spice cabinet. The spice cabinet? Really?
January, to me, brings renewal. Although not pregnant, I feel the same urges to refresh. The windows are open to let in fresh air and I responded to the odd urge to straighten up our cd collection. I know, it's funny that I do not have an IPod but I resist most electronic gadgets and enjoy our old cds and all the memories they hold. So, my parents' old wooden cabinet holds all of our cds, most of which are in the wrong case. My husband takes great care of them and puts them away, just not always in the correct case. Somehow, once I sorted them all out and retrieved Justin Townes Earle from the James Taylor case, all felt right. I packed up the baby cds like Raffi, "Fruit Smoothy Groove" and "My Favorite Sing-Along Songs" to send to my friend who just had her first baby. I had a lot of time to sit, smile and reflect while my son blasted "Move It On Over" and "Rock This Town" on his electric guitar nearby.
Other projects have called to me, like my closet. Somehow, receiving new Christmas gift items allowed me to part with that unflattering grey, boxy sweater with the too-short sleeves and other items. January is not as much about resolutions for me as it is about reflecting after the holidays, cleaning out the junk in my life and heart and preparing for what the New Year will bring. Let the compulsions begin!