Tis the Season

Time flies.  As a teenager, we all complained of being bored or wishing for some date in the future to "get here" and our parents always said that time moves too quickly and we'd understand one day.  One day is here.  How is it 2011?  How is it possible that my child is 2 years and 5 months?  How is it possible that I brought my sweet Princess (yes, that is my dog's name) home 10 years ago?  How is it possible that in February 2012, Jason and I will have been together for 10 years?

Time moves along and if you aren't careful, you hardly notice.  Minutes turn into hours, hours into days, days into weeks, and weeks into years.  Now, years into decades.  What the heck????  This time of year, I really lose track of time because I spend the end of one year looking ahead to the next.  From September on, I spend a great deal of time scheduling and planning events for the following year.  I forget that we are still in 2011 and a number of times have written 2012 on a date line.

I am making a great effort to stop, take a look around, and have a good time.  Years ago, a friend got married and during the reception I found her sitting on a chair all by herself.  I sat down and we talked about something meaningless.  Weeks later, she told me that just sitting there, talking about nothing, made her take in the whole scene and by just slowing down for a minute, she remembered to enjoy the day.  I took those words and did the same thing at my wedding.  At some point, I sat down and just looked around.  Just one moment reminded me to take in the scene and enjoy myself because the whole day would go too quickly.  It did go too quickly and now it is a blur of fun memories.

Each day, my goal is to sit down and look around, take in the scene, and enjoy myself.  We only get to do this once.  It should be enjoyable.  Nope...I'm not living in a bubble where there are no bad days.  That is ridiculous.  Actually, there aren't bad days...there are days that can be very, very challenging and many that leave my head spinning.  Everyday is a good day because I woke up and I am surrounded by people I love.  If you make it from start to finish then it is a good day no matter what happens....

The point of all of this is that during this holiday season, we should all remember to slow down, look around, take in the scene, and remember to have fun.  The holiday season should be about being with friends and family and giving back to our community and having fun.