The Rhythms of Life

First of all – Happy 2013 to you all! I still can’t believe that we are here, 6 years almost to the day, of this incredible journey. Having married, moved, lived and worked in a foreign country, had two children, now back and navigating re-entry into our own culture - what an incredible journey it has been! And as I look back I am struck by God’s faithfulness and His goodness through it all. The changing seasons. Work and rest. The rhythms of life.

The rhythms of life here are different to life in China and this past festive season has clearly shown me just how much. We have just come out of probably our busiest festive season as a married couple. I never understood why some people call it ‘the silly season’ but after we have eaten our way through three Christmas feasts, spent the last month hand-making all of our family’s gifts, hosted and stayed with family across several days, and indulged in more Christmas treats than we care to admit, I now understand how one can get to the end of December feeling rather ‘silly-ed’ out. Don’t get me wrong, I am a Christmas fanatic – all things traditional and tinselly, wrapped up in large doses of family together-ness is right up my street, but after 4 rather low-key festive seasons during our time in China, I think I may have forgotten how to do big Christmas?!

I am also not used to having a hot Christmas these days. Southern hemisphere warmth has escaped us during December the past 4 years and I think it is safe to say that the weather plays a huge role in keeping Christmas time in Beijing rather low key. Of course, in our later years in China we mixed a lot in western circles, eagerly embracing the British tradition of mulled wine and the American tradition of elaborate tree decorations on the back of Thanksgiving. But overall, we had only one or two Christmas engagements with friends before the snowy blanket of white kept you indoors (particularly with a baby). December is not an active time in Beijing, in fact, once all the foreigners escape the city and head back to their homelands, the Chinese get on with business as usual and one would be forgiven for thinking Christmas was just another work day (it actually is for all the locals!)

Our first Christmas in Beijing epitomized the low key traditions that became the norm in years to come. It was our first as a married couple, and my first away from my family. It was cold, and we had a little little gimmicky Christmas tree that lit up on the ends. I made some ornaments out of left over scrapbook supplies and there were only two gifts to open come Christmas morning – the ones we had bought for each other. We ate ferrera rochers in bed just the two of us, and then headed to a restaurant with some western friends for a turkey lunch which paled in comparison to my mom’s lamb roast. There were no Christmas decorations in the shops as a reminder that we were in the season of giving, and if I heard jingle bells playing once it was a lot.

December is also not the biggest holiday of the year in China. As a local Chinese, practically nothing changes over Christmas. Their real holidays come about 1 month later for Chinese New Year when there is mass exodus from big cities and into the rural homes. No local would take leave in December but for the week before and after the national CNY holiday, productivity in China is at its lowest and there are only westerners are at their desks during this time. As foreigners, we worked off a slightly different calendar: Schools dictated the typical northern hemisphere system of a September to August year with the long annual break occurring over summer – the June to August period. We started our terms in September after a 3 month holiday of travel and relaxation, and while Kyle studied and I worked at a school this was our main holiday period. We got used to this way of life and come September, were fresh and ready for the coming year. With December only 3 months later, and that much colder, westerners seldom made as much fuss over Christmas break which was only 1-2 weeks at most.

Being back in South Africa, I can now see how our typical way of life won’t fit into the ebb and flow of Joburg society. We unwittingly opted out of a December holiday while the rest of the country had a break from life. We are now seeing people returning from their coastal bliss feeling ready and excited for 2013 and the 12 months of slog ahead of them before another break is due. We on the other hand, are Christmas-ed out, having arrived in 2013 quite disheveled and unprepared. We are both tired (a combination of too many Christmas commitments, no deliberate R&R time, warm weather that screams activity and a teething baby), but we are also in need of a holiday, just when everyone else is getting back from one!  In essence, we are out of sync with the rhythms of the southern hemisphere, and need to get our clocks back to the South African way of doing things.

But we are all the wiser now. We are rectifying things by bringing our scheduled holiday forward and ducking to the coast in February. We also plan to keep next Christmas to a minimum – in terms of effort and commitments – and might return to some of our China Christmas traditions and use the weather as an excuse to stay at home. And so as we go into 2013 my prayer for us, and you, is that we give ourselves the grace to move with the ebb and flow of the seasons, and have due rest when the time comes (and everybody else is doing it too!)