Things That Matter Most

Things That Matter Most

If Today Were Your Last …

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Would you be sitting here, reading my blog? Would you even be at your computer in the first place?

Or would you be spending time with family and friends? Would you be polishing off that last item on your bucket list? Would you be taking a few minutes to write a letter to a long lost acquaintance or a word of advice to a youthful relative?

Throughout life, we’re given ample opportunity to reflect on the blessings around us. The relationships we’ve built, the personal items we’ve acquired, the experiences we’ve lived. It’s amazing the richness of life we possess when we truly take a minute to look back.

Every achievement we can reflect on with joy. Every challenge we’ve faced and by living still, overcome. Every friend or relative who has entered and touched our story.

These situations are not rare, yet the number of times we take a moment to truly reflect on what they offer us are.

Understanding the ways in which you’re blessed help pave the way for how you can, in turn, be a blessing to others. Your story can help educate members of the next generation. Your skills can be passed down. Your history can provide guidance – both instructive and cautionary – to those who follow.

But it depends entirely on you. On how much you’re willing to share. On how much you’re willing to invest in those who come after you.

Christmas is a celebration of second chances. It’s the celebration of the day the Word of God was made flesh and entered a sinful world in order to redeem it and give us all a second chance at salvation. The story is a wonderful one, and reflecting on it annually gives us the opportunity to look at where else we’re given a second chance.

You have a second chance to approach your job with an enhanced attitude of appreciation and gratitude. You have a second chance to mend a relationship with a long lost friend or an estranged relative. You have a second chance to evaluate your life’s overall trajectory and make mid-course adjustments.

Christmas is a blessing that gives us the chance to reflect on and appreciate our manifold blessings. The day after Christmas gives us a second chance to look at our lives through new eyes and better answer the question: if today were your last day, how would you spend it?

Would it be a day well spent?

Most Christmas Music Isn’t for Me

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For two holiday seasons in a row, I worked at a mall.

The first year, I worked December and January selling jewelry at a major area shopping mall. I got the job through Craigslist, 1 and kept it until I finished the final round of interviews with a real job in Seattle.

It wasn’t that bad of a job. That is, until we switched to our holiday hours: 6am to 11pm. More than once, I was asked to work open-to-close shifts. Back-to-back. It was a lot of hours as an hourly yet exempt-from-overtime employee. I learned quite a deal about selling and diamonds and credit checks and subtly signaling security to deal with disgruntled customers.

I also learned to despise the smell of Cinnabon (our next door neighbor), the smell of over-roasted Starbucks coffee (across the hall), and the sound of Michael Jackson singing “I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus.”

That winter, I learned just how limited our creativity was when it came to seasonal music. Once, just for fun, I kept a list all day of which songs were played and how frequently. It turned out the mall only played the same 25 songs on a loop. Of the 25, all but 5 of them were recorded before I was even born. It made for a wonderfully frustrating Christmastime for me.

The next year, I worked at a clothing store in a strip mall. It was a much better job with more regulated hours – plus I didn’t have to wear a suit and tie every day. As Christmas drew near, though, it became very similar to the previous year. Shifts became longer – again, without overtime. Holiday decorations cluttered the store.

And the same music played overhead. This time, they’d added a few newer songs – well, covers by newer bands of the same songs written and recorded decades past. I learned quickly that there are only so many different ways to sing “I’ll be home for Christmas” before everything sounds like a copy.

Nowadays, I’m usually in complete control of the music around me, so you won’t often find Christmas music in my car. It’s not that I dislike Christmas, or even Christmas music, it’s that I want some originality in our celebrations.

The radio stations I listen to play a mix of old and new. Older scores sung by contemporary artists help refresh the feel of music written in the 40s and 50s. Even better, many of the groups performing today are writing completely original Christmas songs! I have no problem with the newer music; much of it is even better than the time-honored pieces playing at the mall.

Unfortunately, most people see me silence the radio or change the channel around Christmas and automatically label me a Scrooge. They think my distaste of a 10-yr old Michael Jackson singing about Santa is tied to a distaste for everything Christmas. That not wanting to listen to the same songs over and over and over and over and … means I want nothing to do with the holiday season.

If anyone stopped to ask me, though, they’d learn I both love and look forward to the Christmas holiday – this coming week the most. Too bad for snap judgments, right?

Notes:

  1. That I was hired without a background check, references, or identity verification is another story entirely. ↩

Merry Christmas

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I’m never really been a fan of Christmas music.  Chalk it up to two winters working retail in large malls and shopping centers, listening to endless reprises of the same tired old music over and over and over and … you get the picture.  You can only listen to recordings from the 1950s or a young Michael Jackson singing I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus so many times before you tire of listening to the radio.

But this year, I’ve heard some interesting new music.  Remixes of old carols with new melodies and choruses.  Even a handful of completely new songs, too.

So today, while you sit warm by the fire with family and celebrate a day of rest, here’s my new favorite Christmas song from this year: His Favorite Christmas Story by Capital Lights.

Find more artists like Capital Lights at Myspace Music

He met her up in Delaware in 1937
She was wearing red lipstick to match her pretty dress
December 24th at a quarter till eleven
is when he finally gained the courage to ask her to dance

It was the night before Christmas, it was love at first sight
The carolers sang as they danced through the night
She was a small town girl, he was a traveling guy
He never caught her name before they said their goodbyes

A couple years later he was out on the road
Having Christmas dinner in a diner alone
When he saw a young waitress with a gleam in her eye
Her favorite day of the year she showed her spirits were high
She said sir can you shed a little holiday cheer
A simple Christmas story was all she wanted to hear
He looked prepared with a smile as he started to say
here’s my favorite Christmas story about a girl with no name

He said I met her up in Delaware in 1937
She was wearing red lipstick to match her pretty dress
December 24th at a quarter till eleven
is when I finally gained the courage to ask her to dance

Every holiday season as he traveled he’d tell
about his Christmas dance partner that he never knew well
He’d share his favorite story with the locals he met
He was called the Christmas story tellin traveling man

By age 53 he had done settled down
All the neighborhood kids liked to gather around
Just to listen to his stories about his life on the road
All he had now were these children he told
And every Christmas eve they showed up before dark
He’d tell them all the story but they knew it by heart
They could quote it word for word, he always told it the same
It was his favorite Christmas story called the girl with no name

He said I met her up in Delaware in 1937
She was wearing red lipstick to match her pretty dress
December 24th at a quarter till eleven
is when I finally gained the courage to ask her to dance

Twenty years later as he took his last breaths
On a cold Christmas morning in a hospital bed
The children had grown, he had nobody left
Except the little old nurse who was holding his hand
He said Ma’am can you share a little holiday cheer
A simple Christmas story was all he wanted to hear
But his eyes filled with tears at the words that she spoke
Because his favorite Christmas story was the one that she told

She said I met him up in Delaware in 1937
Though I never caught his name he was a traveling man
December 24th at a quarter till eleven
I’m so glad he got the courage to ask me to dance