Our Winter Cheer
A chill has come to the Pacific Northwest. Trees are now empty and we are left to find joy in the stark nakedness of the winter. The sound is calmer, mountain tops are snow capped and the world has a contradicting stillness in its bustle. Seattle is covered in twinkling lights and ornaments, and everyone is bundled up a little bit more.
The holidays give us a reason to decorate the skeletal work. We can choose how to see our world for this one month, and whether we choose to look out the window in the glow of the tree, indulge in color wrappings on buildings, listen to holiday music or simply just light candles in our homes - let's allow for whatever keeps us warm.
Cheer is everywhere. It's that time of year full of pauses of reflection, making wishes and getting lost in sparkling wonder. This next month gives us an opportunity to stir our imaginations and reflect on the year past and gear up our dreams and wishes for 2013. Every year we wish the holiday season would slow down, despite its ever-increasing craziness. We have a month to fit in everything we have left to do and fulfill promises we have made to ourselves a year ago. We want to hold onto this month that keeps us warm in its compassion, kindness, reflection and gratitude.
I have been blessed and fortunate with an incredible family, great love, sisters from other mothers and an incredible extended family of friends. Every day I am so grateful for the gifts I have been given. As I look forward - I wish I could protect them: their goals, hopes, dreams, thoughts, wishes and passions. I want to wrap my heart around them and never let them go. I wish everyone comes out of this year and into 2013, unscathed, unbruised, and their hearts and hopes fully intact.
Taking huge leaps of faith this year, I have learned a lot. I'm just in the process of trying to organize what it all means. I have tried (...really hard) to learn patience and understanding of myself, for myself. I need to learn to slow down. To enjoy more. Worry less. Mostly, I still need to take time and recognize and love the simple things that make life beautiful. This is a work in progress, but I'm getting better. It all stems from the belief we have in ourselves, and in each other.
This year, re-creating yourself was the theme. Be it in new cities, in new and old relationships, and friendships, as new mothers and fathers, as husbands and wives. There have been so many changes this past year, and as we all fumble to find our way into the next, my hope for everyone is that over this next month you take time to find your happy and your cheer in all that we have all accomplished together and separately. (Tarnishes and blemishes included; mistakes make for a beautiful mess when you've moved far enough forward to look back on them.) Let's all revel in the year that was, before we begin our collective wish for the extraordinary in 2013.
The holidays give us a reason to decorate the skeletal work. We can choose how to see our world for this one month, and whether we choose to look out the window in the glow of the tree, indulge in color wrappings on buildings, listen to holiday music or simply just light candles in our homes - let's allow for whatever keeps us warm.
Cheer is everywhere. It's that time of year full of pauses of reflection, making wishes and getting lost in sparkling wonder. This next month gives us an opportunity to stir our imaginations and reflect on the year past and gear up our dreams and wishes for 2013. Every year we wish the holiday season would slow down, despite its ever-increasing craziness. We have a month to fit in everything we have left to do and fulfill promises we have made to ourselves a year ago. We want to hold onto this month that keeps us warm in its compassion, kindness, reflection and gratitude.
I have been blessed and fortunate with an incredible family, great love, sisters from other mothers and an incredible extended family of friends. Every day I am so grateful for the gifts I have been given. As I look forward - I wish I could protect them: their goals, hopes, dreams, thoughts, wishes and passions. I want to wrap my heart around them and never let them go. I wish everyone comes out of this year and into 2013, unscathed, unbruised, and their hearts and hopes fully intact.
Taking huge leaps of faith this year, I have learned a lot. I'm just in the process of trying to organize what it all means. I have tried (...really hard) to learn patience and understanding of myself, for myself. I need to learn to slow down. To enjoy more. Worry less. Mostly, I still need to take time and recognize and love the simple things that make life beautiful. This is a work in progress, but I'm getting better. It all stems from the belief we have in ourselves, and in each other.
This year, re-creating yourself was the theme. Be it in new cities, in new and old relationships, and friendships, as new mothers and fathers, as husbands and wives. There have been so many changes this past year, and as we all fumble to find our way into the next, my hope for everyone is that over this next month you take time to find your happy and your cheer in all that we have all accomplished together and separately. (Tarnishes and blemishes included; mistakes make for a beautiful mess when you've moved far enough forward to look back on them.) Let's all revel in the year that was, before we begin our collective wish for the extraordinary in 2013.
