Five years ago–during this very week, I wrote this about the beauty of taking down the decorations. I reread it every year, and I thought you’d enjoy it today:
I notice today that nobody ever posts photos of undecorating.
Nobody wants to see a house dismantled of its glorious holiday adornment. I find it curious because I love taking down the decorations as much as I love putting them up.
Stripping down the house back to that pure, simple home creates a sense of a fresh start and a refocusing on day-to-day simple community living and work.
I think about God’s work of dismantling the excess and the show from my own heart. I imagine the clean surfaces, the fresh walls and windows, and the wide open living spaces of my own heart now cleared. I’m pared down to basics.
I love the basics of family, friendship, hard work, and creativity.
I love the basics of living from my soul and not my circumstances.
I love the basics of having a grateful heart.
I love the basics of walking to school.
I love the basics of a cat at my feet, the Bible in my hand, and a mug beside me. I love the basics of a teaching life where I print out the fresh names of all those new students. I paperclip stacks of lesson plans freshly copied and organize my bag for a new day of school tomorrow.
Soon, I’ll cook dinner, and I think we’ll watch Downton Abbey tonight when the girls go to bed.
I love undecorating.