Thursday, November 13, 2008

This Time of Year


I love this time of year. It puts me in such a happy mood. I'm not complaining that the holiday lights are already up in Decatur. It doesn't bother me that Starbucks broke out the red cups and added the gingerbread latte to their menu the day after Halloween. Last week, I was shopping at Target during lunch and stumbled upon the holiday section; they had ripped out the Halloween display and were in the process of replacing it with Christmas. I didn't fuss for a second about it being too early; I just wandered the aisles and took it all in. I love all the trinkets and decorations, the beautiful ribbon and wrapping paper, the cards, and the lights.

Yesterday's cold, blustery weather was perfect too. Waves of leaves floated from the sky, sometimes just a few, sometimes lots all at once. They have gathered ankle-deep at the edge of the rode where the curb meets my yard. The overcast sky reminded me of my favorite holiday album, December by George Winston. I played it yesterday for the first of many times this season. It captures the mood of this season perfectly--the joy, thanksgiving, hope, and even the melancholy that will inevitably come by year's end when we must pack it all away. But for now, the season is ours to enjoy, and I am happy to get a head start and make it last as long as possible.

8 comments:

Rachel Nye said...

Very eloquent pat! You have put into words this happy, gitty feeling I have been feeling the past couple of weeks. A sense of excitement for the upcoming weeks and holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, I love them all and plan to try to be as stress free as possible for them!
I normally travel to Florida for both, but Eric and I have decided to just go for Thanksgiving, than spend Xmas here and take a trip up to the Carolina mountains for some skiing for a couple days, I am so excited!

Pat said...

Thanks, Rae. Love your plans for December. Sounds great.

MelissaR said...

I too love this time of year. Though I love Thanks giving a bit more than Christmas. I mean, I love ALL the lights, toys, songs, etc., but the shopping and gift giving can get stressful. My favorite think about Thanksgiving is that all the family gets to be together and enjoy each others company without all the stress of the gift giving and shopping.
Anyhoo, I am going to CA for Thanksgiving but will be here in GA for both Christmas and New Years.

Rae~ The skiing sounds wonderful!! I learned to ski when I was about 2 years old and did it for many years, though I was never really very good at it. I haven't gone skiing since I've lived here, which will be 10 years this January.

Pat said...

Leela, I just read your post from yesterday. Thanks for taking the time to make such a thougthful comment.

Sheryl McCalla said...

Leela, just saw your comment from yesterday. I love "What the &#@%*[bleep]..."!

But for those who haven't seen it, I gotta warn ya, many people think it's crazy,

MelissaR said...

I have and have seen "The Secret", but I have never heard of the other one.

Pat said...

I know about The Secret, but have not heard of the other one either. I will have to check it out. A recommendation from Sheryl and Leela is good enough for me.

Leela said...

Hi again everyone!

Pat, I am thanking you for the chance to express my thoughts among your friends, who are for sure sharing their interest and passion for a healthy life style and therefore a life of quality. We all have this in common, therefore it is always a pleasure and an honor for me to say my opinion when the subject interests me.
Regarding "The Secret" I will not say too much more, since a few people saw it already.
Allow me, please, to share with you my own experience concerning "What the bleep do we know" ... It is an amasing message for altering the self-awareness, reuniting together the most brilliant spirits of nowadays, among them physicians, therapists, spiritual teachers, writers, specialist in cuantic physics and biochemistry. The movie captivates the viewer with its vivid sequence of scenes, half scientific, half comedy and with its mind blowing senzational information. I myself, after watching this movie for the first time, I felt the need to remain silent and to let all the experience that I had to be integrated inside me.
Some people might consider it crazy, other people might consider it a masterpiece ... just watch it for yourselves and see what it can bring for you ... I am smiling thinking about all the greatest spirits of mankind: Jesus, Socrate, Da Vinci, Giordano Bruno, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela ... what have these spirits in common? ... the integrity in which they lived their lives, their stand for the truth ... "The Truth will make you free" ... I would ask permission to share with you the true story of Socrate, being a teacher who I am admiring a lot for his honesty. Socrate was a briliiant phylosopher living in the ancient Greece and he was talking with the young students of the time about everything human mind could imagine in a very open way, therefore these young people started to behave freely and to intend to transform their society, which caused a great complain among the parents of these students.
So that these parents went all to the senators and ask for Socrate´s death, to stop this revolution in their children´s minds.
The senators had a great respect for Socrate, so they decided to talk with him about it. They told Socrate to choose among three options: to go in exil, to give up his truth or to die by poisoning.
Socrate said he likes his country, so he will not go to exil, he believes his truth, therefore he will not give it up, therefore he gladly have chosen the death by poisoning ... It makes you wonder ... how many human beings are able nowadays to graciously choose death, facing the biggest fear of all (fear of death) in order to be true to themselves? ... to be a stand for honoring themselves and life itself? ... in other times, the battles were outside us ... now the most challenging thing is to be self-content and surrendering life ...
This is each and every one first responsibility!