It is out there, all around us, wherever we go. This time of year I see it in my friends’ eyes. I hear it over the phone, talking to relatives. And despite the antihistamines, melatonin and muscle relaxants I take daily, stress lives in me as well.

At my family’s annual reunion on Sanibel Island this weekend, I watched a young girl meandering along the beach. She walked with hands held out to the wind. Sometimes she skipped on her toes or kicked up the sand with her heels. Her feet took her in a direction that was the opposite of where she looked.

This is what I will need to do to get through the holidays. If I follow my head I might never get out of my pajamas or leave the house.  So I’m buying candles for friends. And I’ve got a box of rainbow cookies to share. I will look at who I am and the patterns I’ve developed but then, for the holidays, I will allow myself to go in a different direction.

I can become the girl on the beach.