I won’t mention the C-word again. You know the one. With that S-guy? With lay-bys collected last minute. Rushing around for two weeks to spend a day with family. The irony is we are supposed to be enjoying the holiday season; the fact is we all get stressed out. You can tell yourself you will be nice to your mother as much as you want, but when she walks in that door knowing best and making sure you know she knows best… That’s when the crazy starts to bubble. And surely I’m not the only one who has been up past midnight, wrapping presents with images of how happy and grateful the kids will be ..only to listen to them argue over who plays with what while you are picking up all the paper a few hours later thinking "Thank God that’s over!"
I hate buying gifts for my partner. Socks and undies are easy. Everyone needs those. Gifts for the family are usually those tins of butter cookies that only appear on the shelves during Christmas. It is hard not to spend every last dollar on presents for the kids – and they are at the age where they are easy to buy for.. But time will take that from me too. It’s the innocence of children that time steals from us. My little man had his heart set on being a Power Ranger when he grew up. I had to be the one to break his heart and confirm that they weren’t real. He was devastated, but after explaining that they were actors and actors get to do really cool stuff, he brightened up – especially when I mentioned ‘Back to the Future’. Though we haven’t reached the subject of time travel yet – so I’m probably going to disappoint him again very soon! It’s sad how time ages us. The excitement and joy that kids feel at Christmastime brings us back to that lost time of wonder where happiness is simple, and infectious!
Time can be so repetitive… which is weird if every moment is a new one. There is nothing more repetitive than New Year’s Resolutions. Einstein might have said, ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ To be honest, my resolutions for the last 10 years have been to lose weight. Year after year I promise myself that I will do it – and never really have. This year, for the first time, I discovered the ‘fun’ in fun runs, so my resolution next year is to do five fun runs, all courteously spaced out a couple of months apart.
Holidays always make me feel like I have more time than I actually do. At the beginning my mind lights up with possibilities. One day, I really will learn French. I will start writing that novel, break old habits and form new ones (like going to bed before midnight!) and somehow have the most fun ever with the kids. Before you know it, the holidays are over, and you end up shoving those half-started projects aside to make school lunches.
I heard that time goes faster as you get older… perhaps because one day you wake up and a decade has gone by. Or because you have already lived 60 years, so there is less time ahead of you… even the concept of time is wacky, especially if you ask yourself whether it exists purely as a human construct for ordering events past, present and future, or as something of itself. Mmm. Too much existentialism right now. Where’s that coffee?
I couldn't resist putting Time by Pink Floyd in here... it's definitely is one of those songs that bring back your youth ;p
The new issue of Hazed will be out tomorrow... can't wait to see the second instalment of Serendipity. I'm feeling a little anxious, hope people will like it :) It's hard writing a column, but I like it! It definately helps to have a great Editor :)
