Stop the holidays, I want to get off

A friend who marks each new moon with an essay writes:

There was one year when I had a truly restful and renewing Moon of Long Nights. I signed up, well in advance, for a ten-day silent meditation that began around December 13 and went through December 23. It was a Buddhist retreat, where participants learnt and practiced sitting and meditating in silence for ten days straight. We were not permitted to talk with one another: meals were silent, lodgings were silent, break times were silent, and meditation times were silent except for an hour or so of daily instruction in meditation. We were awakened with a gong at 4:30 in the morning, and we were asleep by 9pm each night.

For the first few days I found myself falling asleep constantly during the meditation times -- I couldn't keep my eyes open or my back straight up. When released for break, I would go back to my bunk, lie down, and fall fast asleep. I was not the only one. We were all exhausted, and it took four days or so of off-and-on sleeping to be "caught up" enough to begin to apply ourselves fully to meditation.

When I returned to "civilization" on December 23, I brought with me a profound peace and inner rest that I had not felt in ages. The wonder and magic of Christmas came on to me fully after that: the colored lights on the Christmas tree, the great blessing of the love of family and friends, the miracle of renewal, of birth, of life that comes into the void, light that comes into the darkness. I was able to appreciate, enjoy, and really soak-up Christmas in a way that I never had before and haven't since.

That experience made me realize how much we lack, in our current culture, the experience of contemplative, quiet, inactive time; of rest. The Christian monks and nuns of old spent whole decades, whole lifetimes in quiet contemplation and prayer, balanced with prayerful meaningful activity to provide for the needs of the convent, monastery, or surrounding community. They would have celebrated Christ's birth with a mass, with singing, with good works and perhaps some modest gifts. But they wouldn't have needed sales projections, piped-in cheerful muzak or the endless merchandizing of colors, printed images, lights, and holiday displays that have become for us today the emblem of the season. I think that is a shame, and a loss. It is hard enough to slow down in this culture, harder still to do it with Christmas
coming.