January is a friendless month. The joy of Christmas and New Year is over. Everyone has spent too much, and put on weight; the skies are grey, nothing is growing. Spring is a long way away.
Later months have it so much easier. March proclaims the start of Spring. This year, April will give us Easter. Ten days after that we will enter May and Britain’s warming. Then comes June and Summer, lasting through to September. True, the British Summer is often a disappointing child, but it’s still often warm and bright. September gives us the mellow colours of Autumn. For many, October leads into Halloween. November is a quiet month but prepares us for Christmas-before-Christmas: the party season of December.
In January, however, the world outside is drab and joy feels too far away to even conceptualise let alone look forward to. Does this make her, therefore, the worst month? I omitted mention of February above. Maybe with her showers she is no better than Jan’; but at least Feb’ can say she is Spring’s neighbour.
In January alone all seems sad and hopeless. She is a month simply to be suffered, to be got through. On that point, I think that if all we care about are the days of brightness, warmth and gift – Spring and Summer – that is certainly correct. But while there is nothing wrong with loving those happy days surely we miss out on something – a lot, actually – if we reject that which January does for us.
So, what does January do for us? Well, she is Nature’s rest. In so being she reminds us to slow down. She is life’s hardness, reminding us that tough days are part of our existence. She is Time’s quietness, resilience, and humility – all virtues cherished by the wise. She is plain, allowing us to appreciate the rainbow beauty of Spring, Summer, and Autumn. She is space giving. In her 31 days we have time to ponder our present and future (our past, too, if we wish) setting ourselves up to make the best, happiest, and holiest use of the year ahead.
If we will let her, January will be our friend; a sturdy and sure one. If she lacks glamour she more than makes up for it in wisdom and faithfulness. She is shy, though, so it is us who must seek her out in order to receive her gifts. Dare we?
The photograph above was not taken in January but last November after I went to see AFC Wimbledon play. I thought about making it black and white to fit in with how we see January but then realised I’d rather let the darkness represent our perception of this month and the colour her reality.
Sehnsucht and Wine 