Monday, December 23, 2013

Christmas and My Grandmother

First of all, happy holidays to my friends and family!  I hope everyone has a Christmas and New  Years full of blessings.  Here's to a great 2014.  I haven't blogged in a while, because I haven't really had anything urgent to blog about.  It's been a busy couple of months.  After tomorrow and Christmas morning things slow down a bit.  Everyone needs a break once in a while, right?  Just time to get quiet and reflect on what the holidays are really about.  It's important to be grateful to have family and friends versus being in the commercial frenzy with the shopping and consumerism.  A lot of people have no family to go to for the holidays, which is why being grateful for family and friends is really important.  We've recently had a death in the family so I can attest for that need to be grateful for friends and family.  What's my point?  The holidays to me are about the gift of music, being with your family, having time to yourself, driving safely, not being a lunatic, and just enjoying the holidays  for what they are supposed to be.  Every day we are given another day is a holiday in my opinion.  The fun in Christmas is the carols the decorations and spending quality time with people.   The holidays should  bring out the good in people.  Fighting over items in stores does not bring out the good in people.  I'm cool with getting presents for people.  I am not a fan of the fighting over items and frantic behavior that goes along with the holidays,  I'm grateful that I get to make music and bring people joy for the holidays tomorrow night and Wednesday morning.  Then I get to go to my family and spend time with them on Wed.  I am just glad I have a place to go, with a family that I am close with.  I've worked on myself so I can be a good family member, and I think the work has paid off in that I know we will have a good time on Christmas because I can show up and be present.
   I would like to write one more paragraph to take a moment to remember my paternal grandmother who died last Monday at the age of 96.  What an impressive feat to live to such an advanced age.  She would never view herself as old, and that worked to her advantage.  I saw her a few months a go and she was still walking and everything.  She was amazing for her age.  Things happen and everyone dies and that's what happened here.  There is no escape from death.  She did a good job raising my dad, and as a result of her having my dad, I get to be alive along with my sisters.  She came to a recital I did last year at 95 which really impressed me.  It was a nice gesture on her part.  I will miss her, and I have to admit it is a strange feeling to not have any grandparents left, but such is life.  She lived an impressively long life.  She stayed in such impressive shape in old age, I thought she would live even longer, but death is a part of life.