Singer Carly Simon famously said, "These are the good ole days." What if that's true?
Each December, I'm captivated by the sparkly, new, and wonderful things. Flashy holiday shows, pop-up Christmas stores, posh elegant decorations, festive ice-skating rinks complete with s'mores firepits, and hot cocoa-sipping warming huts. All while fake snow falls on me and Christmas carols hum softly in the background. Maybe I've watched too many Hallmark movies, but I can't help but crave all the bright Christmas things.
Yet past all the stuff, I ache for the ordinary. The days of my childhood when my mom's laughter filled our old, rafty home and she would steam up the kitchen windows cooking the holiday meal. I miss the Christmas Eve nights I struggled to stay awake for midnight candlelight church services. Then later, the joyful happiness of walking home afterward in the snow, knowing it was already Christmas Day.
Despite the sparkly Christmas stuff, I treasure the simplicity of ordinary times even more. December evenings gathered around the table as a family, filled with the expectation of the coming days. The winter nights re-watching favorite holiday movies or making our annual sausage balls together. None of those things are particularly exciting. Not worthy of a social media post or a viral video. Truly, the days of nothing in particular are everything to my heart.
Your Invitation to Consider Ordinary
What about you? Where do you hope to pause and celebrate? The truth is, the season you are in right now may be the very one you look back many years from now and long for the most. Here is your invitation to consider all the December ordinary lovely things.
In the spirit of capturing your right now moments, I created a simple journaling page for you below. Maybe you aren't a journaler or like to write things down. I understand. But these ordinary days are all we have. Taking a moment to capture what they mean to you is a worthy pursuit. If Carly Simon was right and I think she is, it's up to us to capture these days that we will one day call "the good old days."
These ordinary lovely days may be the stuff we ache for in times to come.