No matter what your religious beliefs are or what you practice within your family, the days of this month are filled with excitement and appreciation.  There is a spirit within the air that causes you to think of happy memories and hopeful futures.  It is a time to rejoice, a time to reflect, and a time to make some wonderful memories.

Here in the northeast there is a chill in the air and I get to see my lungs working as I watch my breath circle in puffs in the cold air-I like that part of winter-to be reminded I am living, breathing …Gifted.

I love seeing JOY on the faces of strangers as they walk excitedly and with purpose to attend, purchase, or listen to something that will make them feel better, feel needed, feel loved.  It is a beautiful thing.  Now, there is also sadness, worry, and stress during this season.  Sometimes that makes me sad.  I do whatever I can to help lessen that for others and try to focus on the good I can find in each and every situation.  It is not always easy, be it can surely be done.  There is such a great amount of giving at this time of year.

Just imagine if we used the good, hopeful, enthusiastic, and compassionate, emotion we experience this season all year round…how would the world change?  I wonder?  One person cannot change the world but when one person touches another, then another, and they touch another…then, a chain is formed and the world can indeed be changed.  It takes a decision from each individual to make the changes within themselves, to take the actions they know will create the results they want, regardless of anything that may try to stop them, to create change.

Now is the time when spirits are high and hope is in the air to move forward with JOY and remember the special little things that grow to create special big things.  Remember when you were a child and received a gift wrapped beautifully with shinny paper and a big bow?  That felt amazing right?

Our gifts do not have to be wrapped in shinny paper and big bows to create that same feeling.  It is a choice we all can make to unwrap and feel each gift we have and receive this season and this lifetime.  I know my greatest gifts did not come wrapped in shinny paper and bows but from the kindness of others and the actions of myself.  Do something to give you the ultimate GIFT of good health and happiness, do something for someone else to have the same.  Those GIFTS will be as shinny as the stars.

May you be GIFTed by your own kindness and choices this season and all the other seasons to come. Most of all, remember the gifts you have given and received that made you feel just like that child on Christmas morning with that big shinny present and give more,

Dottie