It comes around on the same date every year but somehow the run-up to Christmas seems to catch a lot of us off-guard. That makes this time of year particularly stressful.
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We’re bombarded with exhortations to buy this, do that, be here, be there, catch up before Christmas. It can make your head spin, fray your temper and generally dilute the festive spirit we’re told we must have.
There’s the struggle to think of and find presents for those we know and love and those to whom we feel ambivalent but through family or social ties obliged.
It’s especially hard when people for whom we’re struggling to find presents have everything already.
Mulling over this the other night, it dawned on me that what none of us really have is time.
Time, I realised, is the present we all want and the gift that is the most satisfying to give.
Spending time with the neighbour in her 90s, frail but still switched on and craving human company, as we did the other weekend, was a two-way gift. She lives next door to our place down the coast – a holiday town in which two thirds of the dwellings are unoccupied most of the year. A knock at her door to hand her some misdirected mail and have a chat made her day and made ours too.
“Are you down next weekend?” she asked.
“Oh yes,” we replied, “and through most of January between us.”
Our place will be be full of people over the Christmas week. While we will exchange small presents, the important gift will be the time we spend together. And if I can introduce those people to the lady next door and share some time with her, all the better.
So, Santa, while I’d love a new Jaguar in the driveway, it wouldn’t be half as good as time I can spend with those I love.
I had the pleasure of meeting Kiama Mayor Mark Honey at a meeting of South Coast civic leaders the other day. He was asked to state his Christmas message to everyone and said, “I’d just like everyone to be happy.”
I liked his message, which got me thinking.
Just what would make most people happy? Time was the answer. Not too much of it so you are bored but the right balance to make you appreciate the time you do have to connect with people.
Time is precious. Knickknacks and baubles are not.
So make sure you allocate it wisely so you can give it and take pleasure in receiving it.
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