December 2011

Clark Griswold.

Last month of the year always bring reason for remembering and nostalgia, but I’ll leave that for other posts. December is always halfway between new things and old things. It’s the beginning of Winter as well end of Gregorian journey.

There are things I miss about my younger days and things I look forward to in the coming years, but with Christmas falling in the midst of all these other changes and endings and cold temperatures (for us in the Top Hemisphere of the world) things just seem to run together.

There’s a line from a TV show I enjoy where a Dad asks his son what’s the most important thing. The son answers with a definitive: “Breakfast”. The dad corrects him and says “no, Family”. The son says “oh I thought you were talking about the things we eat”.

Often we are like the son, focused on only one thing when forgetting the things that are truly important. Sure , breakfast is important, but Family always comes before that. Maybe family to you is that group of people who happen to share the same genetic code as you, but others. Friends, cousins, people you went to college with. For me, it’s both.

I wouldn’t trade my “family” for anything, even with their flaws, political views or taste in the oak-ridge boys. When we start basing our love of those based on what they’ve done for me lately or how they’ve caused me harm then we aren’t showing love the way we need to be showing love.

It doesn’t come in a box, cost $100 or have apps, but love is truly shown through your actions, words and time.

We don’t need a Christmas season to remember that.