Have you noticed that the older you get, the faster time goes? It seems that each season ends right after it begins and I’m left wondering where the time went. Each day begins and ends in a blur and when I’m ready for bed, I’m still left wondering how my to-do list for the following day is already impossibly long. I’m also trying to decide if I had time to enjoy any of the season that just passed or if I was just too busy.
How about around the holidays? Forget about it, right? I’m in total chaos mode trying to get teacher gifts and neighbor gifts and gifts for the kids and gifts for grandparents. I’m planning and shopping for the food for all the holiday meals and then preparing all those meals. Cookies for Santa? Coming right up! Don’t forget tree lightings and work parties and church parties. We’ve got to pull out all those decorations and get them perfectly placed. Do your kids sit on Santa’s lap? Better plan a whole day of waiting in line for that perfect picture. There’s dance recitals, choir concerts, orchestra concerts and school programs to pencil into the schedule, too. Do you send out Christmas cards? You should start that the first week of November if you want to get the perfect picture and then get them out before Christmas Day rolls around. Have you donated time to a worthy cause to show you care this holiday season? You better work on that now! And on top of it all, don’t forget to continue living the real life of jobs and laundry and meals and homework!
Every year seems to be the same- the holidays creep up on me faster and faster and I find myself shocked when they are over. How did they go so fast? How many things did I miss or not enjoy more fully because I was so busy “preparing” for them?
I recently read the book “Present Over Perfect” by Shauna Niequist and fell in love with the paragraph above. It pretty much sums up the last few years of my life. I have spent years raising kids and working- trying to juggle the two and still keep my sanity. There have been times when I wanted to run away from the chaos that was my life. I’ve had too much to do, too many places to be, too much to manage and never enough time.
There are some Christmas Day evenings where I am falling into bed so exhausted that I can’t remember if I even had a good day. I’ve spent weeks preparing for a day that is over in a heartbeat. And I’m left wondering, “Was it worth it?” I’ve been so consumed with what “needed” to be done that I haven’t taken the time to enjoy it. Did I enjoy my husband and my kids or did I just see to my tasks to make the day and the season “perfect?”
I’ve come to a point in my life where I’m done seeing to the perfect day. I’m done expending all my energy on things that don’t matter. I don’t want to spend all my time planning and preparing for the menial things that no one will remember five years from now. It’s time for me to scale back and recognize the things that are important and cut the junk that is cluttering my life. I want less. I need less.
Shauna Niequist’s book hit a chord with me at a time when I really needed it. I knew my life was filled with too much and that I needed to find the space and the stillness that she was seeking. Here’s the thing, though- it doesn’t come all at once and it doesn’t magically appear because you want it. Scaling back and finding the space is a process that takes some serious work. And honestly, I’m still a work in progress! I have good days; I have bad days. I’m still kind of exhausted most days. But the difference is I’m more determined to find my peace and to be present in the moment than I was.
I’m challenging anyone who reads this to join me in being present this holiday season. It’s time to focus more fully on LESS. Don’t compete with your neighbors for the best decorations- put up what you enjoy or what your kids like. Better yet, let your kids take charge! Can’t get those cookies for Santa made? I have it on good authority that he loves white chocolate covered Oreos that can be bought at any store. Save yourself piles of time and money and send a Facebook/Instagram holiday greeting to friends and family. One year won’t kill you.
Be present, people. Don’t miss what is in front of you because you were too busy creating the perfect holiday season. It’s the time that gets remembered- no one will care what your tree looks like ten years from now or what kind of cookies Santa ate, I promise. 🙂
