As someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas, I admit I have a love/hate feeling about this month of December. The otherness, the nagging internal conflict of how to respond to the daily wishes for a Merry Christmas: disingenuously saying Thanks, you too! Or, being perceived as a downer and saying Thanks, I don't actually celebrate Christmas, but I hope you have a great holiday. It's easy to understand the assumption and I know people are just feeling the holiday spirit, but I never know what to say. It's just a thing.
The Love part of this love/hate feeling is much more fun. In December I can be at home with family and we have nothing we must do, (except make your orders of course), nothing to prepare for, nothing to spend money on. It's a down-time time. Yes.
This December I'll be enjoying a long overdue game of musical rooms at home. I'm finally taking over a room of my own. For the past several years my studio space has been a well trafficked pass-through room in our home. I feel guilty about the perpetual disarray of things (some may even call it a mess)-- fabric scraps strewn about, tools and supplies scattered on all the surfaces. As an out of sight, out of mind kind of creative, I really need to keep things visible, and its not always pretty. And while I love love love my family, I can't really close the door and lose myself. So finally, I'm taking over a different room, someone else's room, all for myself. And yes, I'm uprooting its current rarely-there occupant, who will go to a smaller room. And the contents of that smaller room will go to yet another space, etc. etc. Its work, but I am so excited. I've painted a bright white on the walls; Chantilly Lace by Benjamin Moore if you're wondering. There will be a visible place for everything, all of the tools and supplies and books and samples and everything that inspires me. And our family will recalibrate to a new order of things.
Here's to a bright 2023 full of better things for everyone, everywhere.
“Freedom and fullness of expression are of the essence of the art.”
― A Room of One's Own
Photo © Jakub Certowicz