Do you remember when stores were CLOSED on New Year’s Day? \u00a0And Christmas Day.<\/p>\n
I don’t mean a few stores, I mean everything except for a few gas stations, the odd pharmacy and the occasional restaurant.<\/p>\n
The streets were near vacant because there was nowhere to go except to friends, family or nature.<\/p>\n
Today I drove to a friend’s place. \u00a0It is New Year’s Day. \u00a0Parking lots had a noticeable amount of cars in them. \u00a0Not as bad as during the holiday frenzy and yet, still, a plentitude of cars dotting the asphalt landscape.<\/p>\n
But surely I was mistaken! \u00a0Surely people aren’t actually shopping<\/em>\u00a0on New Year’s Day.<\/p>\n Nope. \u00a0That Winners had someone coming out of it. \u00a0Those other people were headed into some other store.<\/p>\n Yes, there were still places closed. \u00a0But it wasn’t like before. \u00a0It wasn’t a case that almost everyone had the day off except for near essential services (food, gas and medication). \u00a0Some number were still free from the work world, but many were not so lucky. \u00a0Not nearly enough of them.<\/p>\n The joy of these days was that the world rested. \u00a0In the midst of the silent season, we would go quiet, rest and celebrate that rest.<\/p>\n Now our culture has led us to strip ourselves of even that. \u00a0Despite the joy I take in the season, I see many nasty roads we are taking ourselves down. \u00a0This one in particular struck me painfully today.<\/p>\n We’re forgetting how to let ourselves rest, how to turn off, how to let go. \u00a0Despite broader understanding of the need for rest and respite, we are taking ever more steps towards a world where that is forgotten, devalued, tossed aside like three day old chicken bones that never saw the inside of a fridge.<\/p>\n Sadness.<\/p>\n ~Abysmal Witch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you remember when stores were CLOSED on New Year’s Day? \u00a0And Christmas Day. I don’t mean a few stores, I mean everything except for a few gas stations, the odd pharmacy and the occasional restaurant. The streets were near vacant because there was nowhere to go except to friends, family or nature. Today I … Continue reading No Respite…For Anyone?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,12,15],"tags":[71,124,177,216,246],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abysmalwitch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}