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Ready …. Set …… Go!!
In just a few more days we will all be breathing a sigh of relief. We will have, yet again, conquered Christmas.
I am sure I don’t have to tell you, the pressure to perform is enormous, let alone to maintain enough stamina to be able to complete the decathlon of events that lead up to this moment.
It all seems to start with the “Christmas drinks marathon”, and the “try to get as much work done as possible so you don’t have to come into the office sprint” which is usually followed by the “clandestine shopping event” (which for the serious contenders can be an archery or a weight lifting event, and sometimes even both). Not far away from this, and often running simultaneously, is the "pick the perfect pressie long jump" – (criteria for this category being that the gift must both “delight” and “surprise” – and it is to be noted that in the case of “surprise” without “delight”, it is instant disqualification, much like the position of the toe over the board is in other versions of this event).… and this is just a small part of it all.
The final showdown is the “Christmas Lunch relay”, which anyone hopes is a short sprint, but usually turns out to be a cross country through a swamp of family intrigues, sugar overloaded kids and roasts and gravy…… only to be finished off by a double helping of Aunty Beryl’s sherry trifle before surrendering to the food coma of physical, mental, emotional fatigue and sheer exhaustion…
Aahhh….. wont it be great!!!
But yet in those few short weeks (….or days for our male readers who like to think they have started with a handicap but have, in reality, just slipped in halfway through the show) that it takes for us to go through this process, we will have actually thought more about the people around us than we do at any other time of the year. It reminds us of who is important and what is important, and in what seems to be an ever increasingly invasive and pervasive world, it gives us pause to try and find meaning in it all. And so in the few days that lapse between the aftermath of what was Christmas and the promise of the New Year, we tend to tally our successes and failures; of things where we fell short and things where we excelled, and come up with the plans to right the wrongs of the past year.
We hope this year has been a successful one for you, and that your scorecard shows that you have achieved the balance you have strived for, and ticked some boxes that are at the top of your list. We hope there have been surprises (of course accompanied by delight) and that above all, health and happiness have been yours.
And all of this is leading up to…… that perhaps, training should begin a little bit earlier next year, so you again surpass your New Year’s goals (just a suggestion of course!).
Happy New Year!!!
From Christopher Becker, Anje Brown and Lorna Lesley
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