So the tree is down and gone for another year.
The living room expands, which is a plus,
and the furniture breathes deeper
and eases back into its familiar placement. 

But gone, as well, are the colored lights,
the sparkle of ornaments,
the friendly jostling of merriment and memory,
of restoration and peacefulness, of  loss and hope.

By now, I guess, I'm to have internalized all of these.
Or maybe, my optimist says,
this season was given so I might externalize them,
knowing that they were already within me
and live within me still, 
this restoration and peacefulness and hope.

How,
mid-January,
do I continue to manifest them?
That is my challenge.

Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All
rights reserved.