As I glanced outside this morning it was obvious that Christmas lights, competing in early morning with the beginnings of sunshine, lose hands down to the brilliant light tipping the tops of trees and making my birch trees glow.
Category Archives: holiday
Merry Christmas everyone!
To all of you, have a safe and fabulous holiday!
–From Katie and her family
Learning to slow down
This week I was out shopping for a zippered sweatshirt to wear to doggie school. While I drove I was listening to public radio; such soothing and beautiful music! As I pulled into the parking lot a clarinet was playing a contemporary piece based on a 14th century hymn. It was absolutely stunning. I was sad that I had arrived at the parking lot because I wanted to hear the rest of the piece.
Then I had an epiphany.
There was no need for me to jump out of the car just because I had arrived at my destination. With no employment I was operating with no schedule and had the luxury of sitting in the car listening to the radio all afternoon if I wanted to. So I did.
And as I entered the store later I was assulted by ceiling high red Christmas trees and Madonna singing “Santa Baby.” Should have delayed reentry a bit longer.
Don't push me
We often hear that time moves faster as we get older. And that seems to be true; as a kid I had endless summers and it took forever for my birthday to come along. Now that I’m older the summer is over before I get the garden weeded and I have to do a quick calculation to figure out how old I am. But I’m beginning to wonder if it’s my own sense of time passing…or the marketing executives pushing time past me.
Yesterday I was at the grocery store. As I wandered the aisles there was a festive feeling hovering around the edges of my consciousness. It took me a few minutes to realize that the aisles were full of holiday displays. Gone were the Halloween candy packages, replaced by red boxes full of holiday napkins, plates and cups. There were displays of stuffing mix, cans of cranberry and pumpkin stacked on the ends of the aisles. The meat department was piled high with turkey and ham. Could this be? Is it already the holiday season? We’ve barely ventured into November. Later at home I saw my first official Christmas advertisement on TV. Crayola has some new and inventive way for kids to draw. As the day wore on more and more holiday commercials aired.
No wonder time goes faster as we age. We’re bombarded from all sides by proof that it’s already the end of next month. Well I’m not going to be pushed. I’m going to enjoy this month before I start to worry about December.
Change Is Hard 