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Ready or Not, 2022 Has Arrived

Time to get on board; staying behind is not an option

Jan M Flynn
4 min readJan 3, 2022
Photo by Jan Canty on Unsplash

Remember November?

How it appeared burnished with gold and, as the weeks swelled into the feasting time, dripped with butter? Then December bustled in like a pleasantly plump auntie, eager to help decorate and shop and bake cookies until it was time to sit down with a nice cup of something.

November invited us to have second helpings. December clapped its hands in delight as we opened presents.

January barges in and tells us to get back to work.

November sounded like gloriously colored leaves fluttering earthwards to spangle the sidewalks, and like saucepans bubbling with something delectable. December tinkled with bells, rang with songs everyone knows the words to, crackled like wrapping paper and welcoming hearths.

January rumbles like a vast steam engine, just reaching full pressure.

It blows its shrill whistle. The long dream of the holidays is over, it announces: there’s a new year in town. All aboard, ready or not.

Mercifully, January doesn’t arrive all at once

With New Year’s Day as a grace period, January takes a little time to pull into the station…

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Jan M Flynn
Jan M Flynn

Written by Jan M Flynn

Novelist, essayist, inner space explorer. GRIFFIN SPEAKER, book one of a middle grade fantasy series, coming from Disney-Hyperion in spring 2026.

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