Despite a nasty cold this Christmas, I am grateful for the pause to the frenzied pace of life. One time a year, my routines halt — stores close, work slows and news sleeps. Winter break is like the iconic Swiss Railway clock, which stops just before it reaches the full minute (at about 58.5 seconds), pauses briefly and jumps forward. There is clever engineering behind the brief pause before the jump: It ensures that the train clocks are kept in sync.

Similarly, Christmas is a brief pause in my life when I can disconnect from routine, reflect on the past year and jump forward eagerly into the new year.

The Swiss Railway clock metaphor goes a bit deeper. The clock design is meant to fix inaccuracies caused by electric clock movements (which due to AC current, have small imprecisions). At the Swiss railway stations, there are multiple secondary clocks with the famous 58.5s pause. At this pause, the secondary clocks await a signal from the master clock, which ensures they all jump to the next minute at the same time. The master clock is more precise.

Looking at the new year, I wonder, what master clock do I synchronize to? I would hope God, and indeed, Christmas is a time of deep religious reflection. But as the year goes on, the clock falls out of sync, pulled by the currents of work, politics and other distractions.