Even though hurricane season is over, we can still expect a few holiday hurricanes. Things like rooms filled with the debris of hastily opened gifts — wrapping paper, ribbons, glitter, bubble wrap, and boxes strewn across the floor.  And you know what it’s like after the holiday meal — the empty glasses, dirty plates and silverware, bottles, containers, and leftovers that need to be tossed, saved, cleaned up, and put away. It’s like a hurricane hit. Fortunately, it’s the hurricanes we plan for and can leave to the next morning.

In addition to the above hurricanes, there are the internal ones — the painful conversation over dinner that leaves us feeling agitated, sad, or angry and the frustrating holiday guest who is messy, a little too invasive, or stays longer than planned. There are also the disappointments of plans that go awry — the holiday trip that has to be cancelled, the visitor you’ve been excited to see who decides not to come, and there are the plans to relax that get disrupted with unexpected news or work.

It may seem at first blush that these are also external hurricanes — the things people say, the plans that change, the news of the world. But unlike the gift wrapping and dirty plates — which are truly external and simply need to be cleaned up — much of the unpleasantness of these experiences — the anger, frustration, and disappointments — arise inside us. So too, there is the melancholy that often surfaces at this time of year as we reflect on times gone by.