Life

Enjoying the Silence

/ cedarbrookfarmwv / Leave a comment

I write to you from the couch in my quiet living room, while the rest of the house is still asleep.  I will be in a similar position tomorrow morning as I have not been blessed with a child that wakes me up at the crack of dawn.  I will more than likely have to wake her up so that we will have plenty of time to open presents at home before the craziness of the day begins.  For many people, that is what holidays are like.  Not the silence, but the loud, bright, craziness that comes with having family all in one place.  For many this can be an extremely overwhelming time.  We feel the need to make everything absolutely perfect, which is impossible because we are not perfect and that makes us forget about the true purpose for the season.  There is the religious reason for the season, but then there is also the reason of family togetherness.  While I have always dreamed of having a child that wakes me up in the middle of the night to excitedly tell me that Santa came, I have also began to enjoy my tradition of sitting by our Christmas tree with a cup of coffee enjoying the beauty of the lights and the calm before the storm.  I have started to take the time to reflect on the pass year, memories of Christmas past and those who are no longer with me, and to just breath.  So this Christmas, I encourage each of you to find that moment.  You do not need to reflect on  your life if you do not want to, but take that moment to enjoy the holiday and breath.  If your house is too crazy to do it in the morning, stay up for a bit after everyone is asleep.  Can’t find a quiet space inside, wrap up in a blanket and sit on the porch.  You will be amazed what just taking a few moments for yourself during the busy time will do.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Merry Thankmas?

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Do you celebrate all of the holidays in your house or do you jump straight from Halloween into Christmas?  With retailers rolling out decorations for each holiday earlier every year, it seems like people are feeling like they need to follow suit.  I have a co-worker who has already started putting up her Christmas decorations.  I am a strict weekend of Thanksgiving (or later) Holiday transitioner.  My tree stays up until at least the middle of January and anything that can pass as a winter decoration will stay up even longer.  We do agree on the transition out of Christmas, but it is that transition in that causes a lot of good natured ribbing between the two of us.  My husband, knowing my stance and upon seeing a Christmas ad, attempted to “innocently” ask why our Christmas decorations were not up yet.  He received the death glare and was curtly reminded that we celebrate all of the holidays in our house and the Christmas ones would make their appearance appropriately AFTER we have given thanks.

Where do you fall?  Are you in such a rush to get to the end that you miss out on too much of the stuff that comes in between or do you make sure that you savor it all?  Actually, now that I think about it, that is a good comparison for my co-worker and I.  She is in such a hurry for the end result that she sometimes misses some important stuff on her quest to complete the project.  Where as I try to always take my time so that I can make sure that I have everything covered as accurately as possible.

When we are hurtling through this ride called life, we are already traveling fast.  Don’t make it go any faster.  Slow down.  Smell the roses.  Celebrate the little things life has to offer (as well as all of the holidays that are meaningful for you).  Because when you reach the end, you aren’t going to wish that you did it faster, you are going to wish that you savored the time you had.

The same is true for obtaining our goals.  Don’t be in such a rush to get to the end result that you set yourself up for failure.  Plan it out.  Make sure that you take your time to do it the right way, so that your goal has a chance to be a successful one.

Trick or Treat?

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I realize Halloween was a few days ago and I had the inspiration for this post (and many other posts before it) prior to today, but it just never seemed to make its way out of my mind and on to the page, but as I have mentioned, this year has been insane.  The good news is that my family members appear to be back on track health wise.  I did take the summer off from school, but ultimately ended up feeling guilty, so I doubled up on my classes and boy am I regretting that decision!  It has made it difficult to find any spare time to write aside from my assignments.  There has been at least one paper due every week, so yeah… I REALLY haven’t had a lot of spare time.  So while it was certainly a treat to relax this summer, the trick is on me with managing my current class load as well as working fulltime, being a mom, wife, and trying to help family that is definitely feeling better but not quite up to par.

I believe I mentioned in a prior post (or maybe it was one of those posts that never made it) that I have an inspiration notebook.  I write down ideas for blog posts, ideas for stories that one day I hope to write, and sometimes just errant thoughts.  This evening, while I was writing one of those tedious assignments, an errant thought came to me about something that was said to me earlier this week and inspiration struck me like a lightening bolt.  I grabbed my notebook and quickly scrawled out a plan to host local group classes and potentially being able to expand this site and the plans I had for myself after graduation.  I shared these ideas with my husband when he got home, he looked at me in a way that I can only describe as awe and said “that is actually a really good idea! You should do it on YouTube!”  I hadn’t considered that, but I am now trying to figure out what I need to do that.  So, while I do not think it will happen until this semester is over, be on the look out for some exciting announcements coming late fall or early winter about some of the things that will be featured here in the future.  I am excited and I hope you will be too!