Magical time of the year

Well here we are, on the edge of yet another holiday. The Christmas spirit surrounds us and even if we wanted to stop it from coming, it's here...tomorrow. Multitudes of people will awaken Christmas morning, rush to their trees and find that the magic of the season has come and they will tear into unknown wrapped treasures until there is nothing left but shreds of paper.

I miss those moments. I miss the magic of childhood, the joy of the tree sprinkled in presents, the hope that just what I asked for was waiting for me, hidden under the tree. Somehow the magic of the season fades away when you get older and are no longer surrounded by young ones. It feels like just another day.....except if you come across other people, they are a little kinder, gentler, nicer.....for the day.

I've been working retail this year and I forget how frazzled people get trying to get that "perfect" gift. How irrational they become over the exclusions of a coupon and how manic they get when the gift they wanted is no where to be found. Ahh, the commercialism of the holidays has certainly taken it's toll on the masses.

This year is kind of my year off. I don't know if it's the lack of income, the fact that I am working retail and can't hardly bare to enter a mall or the fact that I feel kinda grinchy but I am looking forward to Christmas being over. Forget the magic, forget the presents....just bring on the new year with new possibilities laid out before me without all the baggage of this last year.

I wish we could to a point where it isn't about the packages and bows as much as it is about people being kinder to each other. Boss's understanding the value of paying employee's a fair salary for a hard day's work, for partners to love and respect each other all times of the year and children learning the value of love and worry less about stuff....but that's not our culture, that's now who we are.....who we have created our society to be. I suppose we can do that for ourselves but ultimately we can't change that for others.

I'm making plans for this next year that will hopefully have me sitting here next year at this time marveling over the year I am leaving behind. Fondly looking back at a year that was full of amazing things.

So as the Christmas music turns into a distant memory and the presents we thought we could live without find a home in a forgotten part of our homes, may the new year bring with it all the good and amazing things we need.