This past Monday was a national holiday to celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Monday holidays mean a cure for the dreaded and uneasy feeling we all get around dinner time on Sundays. This emotional state actually has a name...it is known as “Sunday Night Syndrome”, the “Sunday Scaries” and the “Sunday Night Blues”. Reportedly millions of people suffer from it. It is both the result of and a cause for stress and occurs when an individual has anxiety on Sunday night because of having to get up for work or school the following morning. Common symptoms can include moodiness, racing thoughts, digestive distress and problems with sleep. The only known cures for this syndrome are holidays, vacations, sick days and snow days. Then, almost magically, the stress is replaced with a feeling of euphoria gained from knowing that you do not have to set your alarm clock for an early wake-up the next day. Since there are more regular Mondays on the calendar than there are holidays, it seems like we need to come up with a better way to deal with our Sunday night stress than praying for a snow storm or that we will come down with a sudden case of the flu.
Erma Bombeck, the famous newspaper columnist and humorist, once famously wrote “If I had my life to live over, I would have eaten popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried less about the dirt when you lit the fireplace...I would have burnt the pink candle that was sculptured like a rose before it melted while being stored away...and I would have eaten less cottage cheese and more ice cream.” Even though her words are over 40 years old, we have so much to gain from hearing them repeated now.
The first month of a new year and new decade is coming to an end. By now, you have most likely taken down your holiday decorations and stored away the good china and glasses. The fancy linen tablecloths have been sent to the dry cleaners and probably won’t reappear until the next big holiday celebration. Can you tell me why? Why is it that we only use the good china and the fancy crystal when company comes over? Why do we eat dinner every night huddled around our small kitchen tables with the uncomfortable seats when our dining room tables with their luxurious high-back chairs and polished wood lay dormant all year collecting dust? Why do we decorate with fresh flowers and the beautiful candlesticks for big fancy dinners with extended family but not for Meatloaf Monday or Taco Tuesday? If we live our life waiting for the long weekends and the big holidays, it means we are “celebrating” only a small percentage of the year instead of treating each and every day like they are celebrations...which they most definitely should be.
It breaks my heart when I found out that married couples sometimes never get around to unpacking their wedding gifts. They don’t enjoy any meals on the china they spent hours so carefully choosing at Macy’s or toast each other with their very beautiful and special Waterford crystal glasses. This has happened to members of my own family.
My third grade teacher, Mr. Barry Platow, regularly told us “time and tide wait for no man.” I probably did not fully understand what this meant when I was 8 years old. All of these years later, I don’t recall a thing I learned that year in school, but I remember quite well that Mr. Platow wanted his students to learn how important it was to 'seize the day' and to not take a single moment of life for granted. I am sure if he was still teaching today, he would say we should not wait for holidays to light our candles, eat in the fancy rooms, and raise our glasses to toast each other. While time passes and the tides roll in and out, we can and should be toasting the many seemingly "ordinary" moments of our lives.
Take a close look at your 2020 calendar - there are more Mondays than there are holidays. If you wait for a holiday to start truly celebrating, many special opportunities will roll past you like a wave. At a time when so many of us are thinking about the things we want to “resolve to do” this year, why don’t we add ‘eating more ice cream than cottage cheese’ and 'making every day a holiday’ to our lists? That is something to celebrate! Now go get out the fancy glasses! Cheers!