It is 10pm on Christmas… the gifts have been opened, the food has been ate, the dogs are conked out… in fact, there is little life still in the house except for the murmur of the dishwasher and the clicking of the keyboard keys. Ah, silence… a little time to reflect back on the day, on the holiday season in its entirety. It’s hard to believe that it has come and gone so quickly… but the moments like these when we take the personal inventory are the worthwhile ones.
As I sit here (or let’s be honest and say as I lay draped on the couch hoping that my position helps to alleviate the pain in my stomach cause by eating way too much), my minds travels to many places. I could sit here and get stuck on what a tough year it’s been. It has and no one is denying that… I lost a substantial portion of my net worth, worked 5 times as hard for about 80% of the pay and saw my family 25% less than previous years.
I took in 100s of heartbreaking and emotional stories about job loss, foreclosures and heartache. Pushed myself to the ends of what I thought my limits were, and THEN pushed even more. I walked through the door many an evening feeling like a warrior after a battle and knowing that my appearance was probably pretty similar as well. Yes, we can all agree that this was a tough one.
But just a week before the start of a new year, better yet a new decade, I am remembering that we have options. Those that have worked with me have inevitably heard me say at one point in time, “I’m an options person. As long as we have options, we are doing ok.” Well, my friend, in my personal reflections, I have options as well. I could sit and dwell…. Heck we all could. BUT, I have the option to not concentrate on where we were and how bad it was at times… Instead, I am making the choice to remember the good and looking forward to what can be. Here’s the truth, I spent sitting in a warm home, surrounded by people that love me and facebooking/tweeting with friends far and near. I ate good food with even better company… I laughed, I smiled… and at a few moments, I got to roll around on the floor with my dogs. It was blissful. Today, life was good. It was one of those days that we stick in our back pocket and hold onto to help us through the not so good days.
So with that in mind, I started thinking… why can’t we incorporate a little holiday spirit into our everyday? Now, I am not saying that we should give gifts every day or allow ourselves to consume 10,000 calories… but what if we took a little bit of what we practice during the holidays and spread those lessons throughout the year. Could we, would we make our world a slightly better place? Below the things that I always find myself doing more of during the holidays like traveling with a PNW waterproof backpack that allow me to carry everything around. And on this 25th day of December 2009, I think that I am going to make a pledge to keep these going on throughout the new year. Perhaps some will call them a resolution. I am going to think of them rather as life adjustments. (Stay tuned until next week for my New Year’s resolution!)
1.Try to be more giving to others, especially those less fortunate then ourselves.
2.Remember to tell the special people in your life how special they are to you.
3. Smile at more strangers during the day.
So, consider me committed… not to the loony bin, just to remembering the importance of the holidays and wanting to spread a little holiday cheer throughout the coming year.
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