This is the first year in many that I haven’t created and sent out Christmas cards. I’m grieving the loss! I enjoy looking back and looking forward, and the practice of handwriting each name and address is a prayerful one for me.
For many reasons, this year it just became too complicated. Even as I sit writing this, on the second day of Christmas (aka Boxing Day, aka December 26), I’m fighting the urge to do a quick run with Happy New Year cards. Saying no to that urge is also something of a discipline for me.
The practice of setting some things down is an important one. Some things we set down permanently, giving thanks for the blessings they have brought. Other things are set down for a season. In every season, there are things we need to set down, or let go. Sometimes it’s easy. Often it isn’t. Letting go can be the result or cause of deep grief - sometimes both.
In January we usually think in terms of addition - adding in practices or better habits as intentions or resolutions. Sometimes those are also about giving up, but giving up adds to the emotional labor we carry. What if we thought more in terms of subtraction as we enter a new year? What can we set down or let go of?
Many of us are already carrying so much. It might not feel as much like letting go as it does dropping the things we can no longer carry. These seasons of letting go come by necessity. Maybe we can still carry the same load, but that doesn’t mean we need to. When we make a little more room by setting something down, who knows what treasure we might be able to pick up when we encounter it down the road?
We also don’t want to set things down only so we can pick up others. There is no rule that we have to be at full carrying capacity. It’s too easy to treat our limits as baselines. That also takes a toll.
Letting go can be an important spiritual practice. Jesus’s invitation is an easy yoke and a light burden. Doesn’t that sound good? In these days when not much feels easy or light, I pray we can each experience a bit more of that in the year ahead.
Sending you peace, love, and holiday greetings,
Stephanie
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