Holidays and the Choice

Are you in the swirl of holidaze? I call this the time of year holidaze, and say that if you blink, you’ll have missed the opportunity to pause and engage the people you love most. This time of year for me is just brutal with marketing campaigns, launches, and deadlines. It would be easy to proverbially skip  October through December personally because the schedule can be so overwhelming. However, the thing is, every day is a non-repeatable investment your life and if we don’t own that we surely may regret it later.

Yesterday we took time out to go to our side yard.  Yes that’s right, I hadn’t been to my side yard past the clearing.  We live on three acres and yesterday was the FIRST time in TWO years I actually put on my hiking boots, long sleeves and went out and did what it was I have intended to do for 2 whole years. I explored the deep woods next door to us and the side of our property.

I play in our tame back yard, I love tossing balls with our kids, cooking outside and doing the easily done in a few moments, but I have longed to simply go walk the land that our home was built on, to think about the couple we purchased it from who lived here 50 years, to take time to learn the brambles of our more wooded 2 acres and the next 10 acres we someday hope to purchase.

Why yesterday?

It wasn’t a slow down time of year, in fact, I am on one of the most complex projects I’ve ever done in my life with less time to prepare for it than ever before.  The house wasn’t clean,  I just came in from five days in New York, but the choice I am making and I hope you will to, is to begin each day living a well-lived life. For me that defines as doing what matters to my heart and for myself as much as I care and do for others.

The deadlines didn’t change.

The time needs didn’t change.

The to-do lists didn’t disappear.

But I had a roaring good time with my family in meaningful ways. The nuances of the complete and total walking away from the deadlines and engaging life mattered. Yesterday I would have gone to heaven had I died last night having said “today I lived a well-lived life.”

I loved.

I played.

I forgave.

I cherished.

I listened.

I learned.

I laughed.

I supported others.

I took care of my heart too.

This holidaze season, could it be that you need to set aside the chaos and “go go go” of the season and simply choose that this is the day to live?

Personally, after burying three family members in a row in November, my father last year and my best friend a few years ago. THIS day is the day we have and I personally want to live it well.

For my family this is a special time of year, we celebrate the birth of a baby in Bethlehem, perhaps in your world it is about a miracle of oil or a peace that you’ve chosen from a different path, but whatever your week is this week, I hope that you will go into each day with the knowledge that your life is worth living and if it hasn’t been, to choose to take one small step towards actions that matter to live it.