Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Are you keeping the Jingle in your Step?

Within a week the Charlie Brown Christmas tree is really beginning to look like "A Charlie Brown Christmas Tree". Needles everywhere except on the tree! Okay, so there are still needles on the tree, but it was overnight that they fell and now the cats think it is fun to pick them up and carry them everywhere. The couch, the bathroom, the rugs, the tennis shoes...nothing is safe! Beware of pine needles if you visit!

Okay this post isn't about pine needles falling off the tree but it does give me a good analogy for today's post!

I started taking the decorations off the tree tonight and with every one of them the tree looked a little less festive and a lot more like it should be outside protecting a bird or two from the winter cold.

It was during the taking off that more needles began to fall and it reminded me a lot about the end of the year for each of us.  We have dolled ourselves up for the Holidays. Fancy outfits,  music and movies are all cheerful, gifts in pretty paper, smiles and hugs galore and just a little 'jingle' in our step. All of a sudden the day is over and the outfits get put back into the garment bags,music is back to country (okay for me it is), movies are back to repeats, paper is ripped apart, and people head to their homes far and away and the smiles and hugs become few and far between and in essence our needles began to drop.

It is right at that time that we have a choice to put away the jingle in our steps or keep it around for a while. That one moment when you can decide to keep the spirit in you alive and going or put it away for another year! One moment at one time during the end of a year to either celebrate the past and look forward to the future, or revert to the past and forget the future.

We will each be faced with that one moment this season as it always happens. Maybe it is when you begin to think about New Year's Resolutions or like me when you take down your Christmas Tree. You will have that moment when you can celebrate or revert and look forward or forget. One moment when you have the choice of continued positive and purposeful living or keeping up with the same old same old.

Today what that day for me and I celebrated! I took a quick look back at the year and realized it was probably one of the best for me. I lived, traveled, loved, cared, gave, received, became, grew, cried, smiled, laughed a lot, reacquainted with old friends and made a few new ones. It was a wonderful year. Worth keeping the jingle in my step for a long time to come.

How about you? Do you have have a jingle and will you be keeping it around? I hope so. Take inventory of your year and know that falling needles, torn paper, and fancy outfits are all part of life. Live them. Enjoy them. Remember them. Grow from them!

Jingle all the way!

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