The Flight of Time

A sure sign I found at my local TJMaxx today that it is indeed six weeks till Christmas

I am absolutely sure that Christmas 2014 ended just a few weeks ago and that we are only into 2015 by a couple of months...at best March or April. But then I go into stores and I see objects that glisten, glow, jingle and have a little fake snow, and I am brought to the reality of the fact that Christmas is but a mere six weeks away. How can it be?!!

Many years ago my mother told me that, the older you get, the faster time flies. I didn't believe her. Because I, being in my young adulthood, had nothing but time it seemed. It felt as though I had to wait for everything. I waited forever before I found Mr. Right. I waited even longer for us to have our first baby. I waited for our first house. That seemed like an eternity because, well, with Mr. Right and three young children, we really, really needed a house. I waited till I could finally get all three in school and have just a smidge of free time for myself. I waited till I could get all my kids out of school so they could be gainfully employed and we might have a smidge more money. And then I waited for a grandchild. Now I've been married to Mr. Right for 35 years and we have three grandchildren, one of whom is already 12 years old. Whoa.

So here I am in 2015 about to celebrate Christmas in six weeks and I find myself realizing how right my mother was. The older I get, the faster time goes by. Sometimes I wish I could go back and squeeze my little ones one more time but we know time doesn't travel backwards, only forwards (at least for now). I wish sometimes I could go back and have another swing at my studies because I know now I could've made much better grades than I did. That was way more important than the fun I apparently was having doing things that don't make one bit of difference now. I am quite sure my sweet mother warned me of that as well, but did I listen? No, I went about my merry way, taking the years for granted to a certain extent, and now way down here in 2015 I find myself wondering where in the world the years have gone. My three children have morphed into three adults and, even though I can no longer hug their two-year-old necks, thankfully I can hug their adult necks (they are a bit bigger, however). I can also hug on my grandchildren which I do every single time I get the chance because, believe it or not, they too will morph into adults much sooner than I think. What is that old saying, hindsight is 20/20? So very true.

But here's my point. Every single day has always had exactly 24 hours in it. That has never changed and we all are gifted with 24 hours to do with what we choose in that period of time. One person doesn't have 24 while another has 12 and another has 8. God knew that would cause complete and utter chaos on this earth so he gave everyone the same number of hours in a day. But it's up to us what we do with them and I have found that, the busier I am, the quicker time goes by. Sometimes we are forced to be busier than we prefer out of choices not our own, and sometimes we choose it. Either way, being too busy can be a time stealer and a memory robber. Sometimes it's hard to remember what we did last week, let alone what we've done this year that got us another 12 months under our belts so fast. For me, this has been one of the busiest years I can remember in a very long time. And now here it is six weeks until Christmas and I am about to do it all over again.

The holidays are indeed one of the busiest times of the year. We plan, we cook, we visit, we shop, we wrap, we give, the list goes on and on.We try to remember everyone on our list and we try to make the holidays the best we can for our families. We try to do good, we try to pay it forward, we try to remember the less fortunate, we try to be a good neighbor, we try to have people over, we try to keep a clean house. It's all good, but may I make a suggestion? Let a few things go this year. When you are so busy that you cannot enjoy the moments that are truly special, THAT I would say is too dang busy.  Do this instead:

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Listen to Christmas music early
Dance with the kids
Bake cookies
Light candles 
Watch every Christmas movie you can get your hands on
Read bedtime Christmas stories
Read THE Christmas story
Practice being thankful.

And love on those babies and grandbabies day in and day out (whether they're 3 or 13), every single solitary moment that you can. Because I promise you one day, in about what seems like three or four months, you will be getting ready to celebrate Christmas and wonder...where have all the years gone?