Ordinary Time

The Highs and Lows of Holidays Throughout the Years

Last year, we had no Thanksgiving celebration. My daughter-in-law was to give birth any day. The baby was scheduled to be induced the day after Thanksgiving, if nothing had happened.

We had planned a Thanksgiving meal, but earlier in the week, norovirus had made its rounds, and invitees were either recovering, not eating, or trying to keep their distance.

The reward of that Thanksgiving came a day later when there was a new baby to celebrate. My heart went into arrhythmia in the midst of all the chaos, and I was mindful of how long I had been with a racing heart before I got to the front of the line ahead of norovirus, and nine months of pregnancy. Luckily, my heart stopped misbehaving.

This year, the turkey was delicious, the food was terrific, the company was gracious with no big arguments, and yet, and yet, my introverted self is relieved and saddened and heartened to enter into post-holiday recovery.

I remember the years of childhood, years of my own parenting and hosting, years of bad weather and changed plans, and taking out jigsaw puzzles instead. There were years in New York City, watching the balloons of the Macy’s Parade be blown up on Wednesday night, or watching the parade itself. I lived on the Upper West Side, walking distance to the start of the parade.

There were years of holidays with boyfriends’ families, Friendsgiving, and invitations to join aunts’ and uncles’ tables. Over seventy holidays, and some have been lonely, some have been lovely, some have been fraught. A boyfriend’s mother famously passed out on the couch before making the gravy; that’s when I learned she was an alcoholic, and alcohol was the Thanksgiving centerpiece.

I took off one Wednesday before Thanksgiving from work to cook and clean, and was called back in for a state inspection at the hospital. I was seething. We were close to the capital and state offices, and it was an easy, non-travel-day inspection for state workers before the holidays. The state inspectors ruined one other holiday for me there.

Ordinary Time

Ordinary time is a liturgical time in many Christian denominations. It is named for the ordinal numbers of the week, but it is the ordinary time we all live with. There is a comfort in ordinary time. We go about our business without the rise and fall of expectations. We participate in the daily work of cooking and cleaning and chores and tasks, a cup of coffee, the daily delights that surprise us, a new bird, or a splendid sunset.

So we enter, those of us who live within western capitalism, the rush till Christmas, with advertisements showing us an impossibly resplendent vision, and trying to live it up or live it down.

I wait for Ordinary Time.