Keeping the lights on

            Is it time to take the Christmas lights down yet?
            January can be a long month here at the 44th parallel. There’s still a lot of dark time, both morning and evening, and when it’s dark my inclination is to be thinking of bedtime, slowing down, curling up in my pajamas. One reason I don’t mind waiting until mid-December before we get our Christmas tree and string fairy lights in the living room is so that the lights don’t feel too overdone, once we hit mid-January.
            Today I had my first inkling of a thought: hmm. Maybe it’s time to put the holidays away…but why not leave the lights up a bit longer? They do use up a bit of power, but maybe they bestow even more. Maybe, in the lift those lights offer, they produce more positive energy than they consume. Maybe a little glow is just what I need to get through the long nights of January.
            I get a little draggy this time of year, especially during a January like this one - no snow sparkles under the sun; no snow brightens the darkness. There's more rain expected tomorrow; floods and wind damage are wreaking havoc around the state. We need to grasp at any little thing that lightens our load, our day, our spirits.
            They’re so small, those tiny lights, but they have a big oomph inside a droopy head and heart. I’ll keep the lights on, just a bit longer.