I used to be so determined to make each season and holiday (never birthdays) better than the year before when I got old enough to start celebrating on my own. My parents weren’t the type to create or embrace traditions, so I missed out on all of that as a kid.
When I got older, I always had to try to outdo each season and holiday to compensate for the lost times and moments I wish I had. Even that got too exacerbating, because in the end, I could never live up to my own quintessential definition of utopia.
To always try to one up the chip on ourselves and live in a perpetual state of competing with past versions of us, well, that’s not fun. It’s too much stress and pressure.
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Our values also change. We become indifferent to the things we once thought were important. We learn to find meaning in the mundane and ritualize simplicity.
So, instead of making each holiday and season and year the best ever, why not make it worth remembering? But not with outlandish and extravagant memories. Though, if that’s what you like, then go for it.
I’m talking about the receipt we saved from that cute little café for our scrapbook or junk box/journal, the seashells we collected at the beach, the times we sit outside with a book and iced tea we made with herbs from our garden, the moonlit walks with our headphones blasting our favorite music while getting lost in our own thoughts, the Christmas cookies we baked with runny icing because we didn’t wait until they were completely cool before we iced them, that darling antique shop we stumbled upon in a moment of spontaneity.
Maybe we don’t see the significance of those things until after, but those are what we end up cherishing. Those are the memories we collect along the way that help us to see the beauty in life.
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It’s in those small moments that life feels so right even when our lives don’t reflect how we had it planned. It makes us realize that life, with all its unexpected twists and turns, isn’t about the destination.
It’s in the detours we take, what we choose to learn from it, how we grow and evolve. It’s who we become from the fire we walked through.
Life isn’t about finding the meaning of it. Life is about how we create meaning and what we’re giving meaning to.
Take a drive to the charming town you’ve been wanting to visit. Try a new ice cream flavor. Finish reading the book that’s sitting in your drawer. Do something for yourself with each passing season.
Not from a place of atonement. But because you know you deserve to live a beautiful life. Give yourself reasons to smile.
Open your eyes wide enough to see the magic around you. Make each pit stop, season, holiday, birthday, worth remembering. Collect memories as a rite of passage to a life you’re proud to call yours.
I’ll see you next Sunday…in the meantime, love yourself so much that even a Hallmark Christmas movie would be jealous.
