People talk about the time change, and remind others to set their clocks, and discuss how they plan to use the extra hour. It becomes a hot topic, one that I may turn into a column next week. It's even trending on Twitter as I write this.
In the spring, it's the same process, but the conversation is different: complaints about how losing the hour screwed up everyone's system, and how they don't adjust back to normal for like, I dunno, eight months, or something. (I never understood how losing one...simple...hour could put a person's world on tilt for three or four days.)
As we enter into holiday season, our time becomes more overloaded with things to do, and we may lose sight of what the holidays really mean to us.
Thanksgiving isn't about the turkey or the cranberries or the peas & carrots or the dressing. (OK, maybe it's a little bit about the dressing. And a little bit about the Lions game on TV.) And Christmas isn't about elbowing your way through crowded shopping malls or stringing more lights on your house than the neighbor has, or wrapping each gift using only three pieces of tape.
All of the holidays over the next couple of months...whichever ones you may celebrate...are more about the time you spend with those who are most important to you, making memories, laughing, throwing dinner rolls (and the occasional deviled egg) from one end of the table to the other, or trying to determine just how many different disgusting spices can be added to a malt beverage called, "Christmas Brew."
Tonight I am thankful for the extra hour I get to spend diving into Dan Brown's new book, "The Lost Symbol," and the time I will spend during this holiday stretch (that, quite frankly, makes me rather anti-festive before it's all over) with the people I love.
"Happiness is the only good.
The time to be happy is now.
The place to be happy is here.
The way to be happy is to make others so."
—Robert Green Ingersoll
Gregg, I love this post so much. We are in the middle of a big decision about our home right now (that may come to nothing, but still). After all the discussion, comparisons of tangible pros/cons, and spreadsheets (Yes, we are BIG NERDS), we realized that the decision came down to one question:
ReplyDeleteHow are memories made? That was it. And our answer was easy--not by having the biggest, or brightest, stuff, but by being together. What you just wrote here says it so clearly, so perfectly.
Also, heh. "Christmas Brew."
Thanks, Becky, for the kind words.
ReplyDeleteI love that you narrowed it down to one simple focus; that's all kinds of Zen. :) The schools and the neighbors and neighborhood certainly play into a decision of this magnitude.
But close families will make memories wherever they are. Together.
:)
i love how you capture the essence of the holidays: time for each other. why is this so hard to remember, i wonder?
ReplyDeleteexcellent post.
i can't wait to spend time with you and out families this holiday season:)
Thanks, Jess.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to a new way of celebrating the holidays, too! Time on both sides of the lake.