Christmas Fireworks

There's Christmas fireworks outside.  My daughter tells me it happens every year, but I have yet to see them.  I can only hear them.  What a great theory, though.  Putting lights of celebration in the sky.  Lights that match the lights on houses, and sparkling on trees in our homes.  A loud celebration of light to match the energy of the season, and wish it a farewell on this Boxing Day - a lighted send off.  Oh how I wish I could see them.

I am happy to be sending this holiday season off, packing it away, and returning my house to the serene space I have come to love so much.  I am craving quiet, time to gather in close the scattered thoughts of my days.

I am happy to have spent Christmas with family, grateful for the time.  I am also grateful to have accomplished the unconscious acceptance of sharing my kids, and grateful to be free of tears today (for the first time in seven years) as they left for their Dad's house.

I can hear the fireworks, popping and bursting, exploding in expression, rejoicing in their freedom.  I envy the fireworks right now. I, myself, feel like a shook up bottle of soda pop, waiting to burst, anticipating the expression (hence the need for a bit of serenity).  I am anxious for a new year to begin, and clean the slate of lessons learned this year to open up a road filled with new horizons, turns and roads less traveled.

(DECLAN MCCULLAGH PHOTOGRAPHY)