Tis the season
Happy Holidays everyone!! Since I was a little girl my family never celebrated christmas due to religious reasons. Besides the origin, christmas is such a magical time especially for the little ones. Going to bed on christmas eve with the excitement of waking up early as a family, sitting on the floor opening presents in your pyjamas. Breakfast, lunch or dinners surrounded by all of your loved ones, some of whom we don’t get to see very often for whatever the reason. Good food, celebration of life and love. With my family, although we didn’t celebrate we always took advantage of the day to have get togethers. From my early years living in Quebec, eating my grand mothers cooking, sitting at her dining table surrounded by my many cousins, aunts and uncles was so much fun. I never felt left out of the christmas spirit because no matter what, this time really is for family! How time has gone by so quickly. My little cousins are now beautiful grown ups with their own families, dividing time between us and their in laws. My friends are also bouncing around from one family gathering to another with so much love to take in and that really is the point of this season isn’t it! Not the presents or material things but to take the time and be around people we love! Life gets so busy and complicated that it is hard for us to get to be with our loved ones as often as we’d like to, but that’s why we have this special day to ignore everything and just feel the love. I took my family for a walk today (my dog) by the lake and felt so blessed to just see life’s many beautiful versions of love. Mother’s and father’s playing at the playground with their kids, couples walking hand in hand by the water, friends going for a run drowning out the noise for a while before life gets busy again, dad’s carrying their kids on their shoulders. Myself getting dragged around by my huge dog while he jumps in every pile of leaves he sees, he’s too powerful to know his own strength. That’s the true importance of life, being surrounded by love! From when we are born, the true meaning of life is family! Our parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles. Friends who become family. As we get older the common goal for most is to have a family of our own as well, to integrate with our original families. God gave up his only son for us because we are his family and that’s why most of the world share this one special day to really celebrate… family! It’s been so heart warming to personally see families grow. Friends getting engaged or getting pregnant with their first babies. People I grew up with having their own cute little families now, when our only worries before used to be having enough money to go out and party. Thank god those days are over! I’d chose having my own family over partying any day… boy i am getting old! A lot of us no longer have special people in our lives that make this time hard, I know for my family it’s my grandmother! Her bright red hair, infectious laugh, breaded fish cutlets, always getting my cousin Natasha and I confused on the phone (I will give her some credit since it is my middle name) her love for birds, the grape vine in her backyard, her big round swimming pool she got for her grand kids, her moo moo night gowns, her love for flowers. My two older cousins and I sleeping in her bed while she traps us under the covers, farts and kills herself laughing! Those are just to name a few! I miss her so much, as I know my whole family does everyday. That is what this time is about, to appreciate and remember the love we have in this life, even if sadly some are no longer with us! Sometimes so much of real life gets in the way, that we forget the point of living is to love! Our jobs, bills, hardships, material things, egos, so many things can take away the value of real importance in this life and that is to be truly thankful for any love we have in this world!! I have always tried to use a new year to think back on all the things I didn’t like that I have done or things I want to change, and I say try because we are all human it does takes a lot of effort to be our best. As there is only six more days left of 2018, I wish everyone so much love and happiness! I hope that we all shed any negative aspects of ourselves. I hope we open our eyes to the good memories we have had, not the bad. I hope we appreciate our loved ones more and more everyday. I hope we forgive anyone who has done us harm. I hope we all get what we want in life. I hope people wanting love, get love! I hope people wanting marriage, get a beautiful marriage. I hope people wanting children get their cute little families they deserve! I hope people wanting to grow as better human beings, get growth. I hope ones struggling with the loss of a loved one know that the memories they shared with those ones will always be with them, even if they are resting in peace. I hope that the New Year brings you less hardships and more of everything you want and deserve in this thing called life! I hope no matter what, we are always surrounded by love and family because at the end of the day that is all that truly matters!
Peace, Love & Happy Holidays everyone xoxo
