The holiday season is fun, blah blah blah. But like many events in life, I’m equally as glad to bid it goodbye as I was to welcome it in.

Taking down all the Christmas stuff this past weekend re-introduced visual simplicity, an eager relief from the aesthetic weight of all the decorations. Removing the wreath from my front door let in a flood of fresh light. Hauling the Christmas tree out of my living room re-established a breath of open space. Light and square footage that exists the other 11 months of the year, but I always grow accustomed to those dark, bushy pine needles holding their own.

It’s a practical thing, too, feeling the gravity of the season lift. I’d assumed that waking up this morning, the first Monday of the new year, would be a discouraging thing. It wasn’t. I’m grateful to return to the grind, as they say, because the grind is what gets you from here to there. Life was starting to feel like one long, lazy weekend. No structure, nowhere to be, time rendered irrelevant.

I like waking up with a plan.