Gone Too Soon 📆📅

It seems like it happens every year.

Complaints in October about Christmas decorations and carols making an appearance too early, are soon followed by surprize in January that they are gone already.

Yes, it's true that there are those that seem to basically live to complain about just about anything they can get their lips on, but others among us genuinely get caught up in the cycle of complaining and being unappreciative because we simply do not take the time out to appreciate things... even the things that we appreciate. 🤨

Yes, you read that correctly.

There are some things that we grow accustomed to, we like seeing, we like having around... or to be more specific, we like not to not see them, or not to not have them around.

Hmm 🤔... that sounds as tangled as a bowl of spaghetti.  Let's put it this way...

Sticking with our example of Christmas carols or Christmas decorations, or even Christmas services and events for that matter.  If we always have those around and available to us, after a while we allow them to fade into the background.  They carve a familiar groove into our mental pathways... but they've lost their significance to us.

Try to imagine a scenario, where October ends, November rolls around, we actually reach halfway through December and up to that point you haven't heard a single chord of a Christmas Carol or seen so much of a pepper light wink.

How do you think that would make you feel?

There are some among us who know what it is to experience Christmas in Jamaica and then subsequently find themselves in a situation where their new norm is Christmas in some foreign land.  For these dear ones, they probably don't have to try too hard to picture this as it might turn out to be pretty close to their new reality.

How would you feel?  Undoubtedly you would feel a sense of loss.  That sense could easily give way to a state of grief and maybe even depression.

What then should we do?

Well, whether it's Christmas music, or programmes... or places, or especially people... the prescription is for us to take the time out to reflect on what these meaningful things mean.  To appreciate the things that we appreciate.  To not take for granted the beauty all around us that can be found in our relationships... with friends, relatives, family, a community support system that has meant so much to you.

The end of the year lends itself quite easily to reminiscing on the things of the past.  It also gives itself aptly to opportunities to express just how much we truly cherish the delightful Blessings that have stood as hallmarks in our lives, through ups and downs and everything in between.

If we catch ourselves breezing and merely slipping through the seasons one after the other, here's a timely call to tap on the brakes a bit, slow it down and show some love to the treasures that grace our lives, because the truth is we might often think we have all the time in the world to stop, smell and scatter the roses... but all too many times, we find those chances are Gone Too Soon.