Limbo Season

Most days, time does what you expect. It goes by in a predictable way, and you can count on it to link up with a pattern of meals and work and sleeping. Then we hit holidays with the family and all the sudden you’re up to watch Spidey at dawn or assembling a Cozy Coupe in the basement during dinner prep. A moment of a toddler calling “Nonna Nonna Nonna!” expands to fill a lifetime, and a big guy with an axe splits wood that flies across freezing air toward the bonfire. Each instant sings and vanishes. Next thing you know, the limbo window between Christmas and New Years arrives to taunt you with your mortality. You note with some alarm that you’ve shifted up a couple of generations, but you’re also grateful you’re still here downing cookies. My family is now sending around photos of each other napping, and this seems pure and right to me.

This be the time for napping. The season for yon nap. The new year will be upon us soon enough with its boisterous claim to time.