Sunday, July 10, 2011

If Every Day Was Christmas…

If every day was Christmas…would you be too excited to sleep the night before? Would you stand peering through the door hoping to catch a peek of a shadow leaving presents under the tree? Would you make a list of everything you wanted and hope upon hope that Santa would get it for you?...or would you save the list for one day when it wasn’t Christmas so there would be something to get excited about?

The truth is that the world is full of so many special occasions that we forget what we’re celebrating. People celebrate birthdays, secretaries, bosses, bringing children to work, Halloween, winning a game…etc… Come to think of it, when I was a kid, I was on a softball team that never won a game- ever. The other teams used to load into the back of their coach’s pickup truck and celebrate their win by going to the ice cream store. Our team only went once and that was at the end of the season because we really had tried to do our best but still lost every game. We just weren’t all that good at sports. Don’t get me wrong- my sisters and I singing in the outfield was likely a much better show than the game itself- but I guess that would depend on if you came to watch a softball game- or hear little girls singing. Personally…I would choose the singing kids any day. The point is that I have to wonder if that one day that we went to the ice cream store to celebrate our hard work was more memorable and exciting than the other team’s daily outing for ice cream cones. I wonder if they have a specific day that they would consider to have been special or if they just remember those 4 years that they went to the baseball field, hit the singing girls in the faces with balls and got ice cream for it? I remember that one day. We were so excited. We got into the back of the truck with our hats on and drove around the block to the ice cream store. The girls at the counter took each of our orders. Mine was for a small soft vanilla cone with rainbow sprinkles. I love soft serve vanilla with rainbow sprinkles still! It reminds me of one of the best days of my life.

The point is that sometimes I feel like what we do on a regular basis takes the excitement out of memories we may have the ability to capture. I get dressed up every Friday & Saturday (and some Sundays and even weeknights) and dance and sing. It is a huge party. I have so much fun. I laugh all night and I would consider myself to “party” for a living. No- I don’t drink or “party” like many people would consider that word. I just have a huge amount of fun dancing and singing. It’s like New Year’s Eve every single weekend. Dress up, dance, sing…I wonder if there’s a danger in doing the things you love to do too much? Don’t get me wrong…I still love to do it but it is definitely my job. I’ve gone to people’s weddings every weekend for years and years and years now. People come up to me to tell me that I sang at their wedding 10 years ago and introduce me to their beautiful children (and new boyfriends). They remember me being there and are excited to see me because they had so much fun on their wedding day that they will never forget it. That’s nice. Unfortunately I can’t make any distinction between the weddings unless a cake fell or if I went into anaphylactic shock from accidentally eating a walnut in a cookie I shouldn’t have eaten anyway… To me, everyday is Christmas.

This seems like a strange thing to be complaining about and I really am not complaining…exactly…I am more noticing that too much of a good thing takes the wind out of the sail of something that should feel amazing. I LOVE my jobs. I have fun all the time. I just wish I knew how to capture one moment as different from the rest. Everyone always thinks their party is different or better than others. As someone who has been at every single party every thrown, I need to say that there is very little difference between them. I contend that the reason the person throwing the party thinks theirs is special or different is due to the anticipation of preparing for it. They make their list of what they want… they can’t sleep all night the night before… they wake up early on the day of it and run down the stairs so excited that they could burst. Perhaps celebrating Christmas only once a year is a much better way to make it memorable? I don’t know though…I do everything too much…I’m too excited…I jump around and sing all the time…everyday is Christmas…What would be memorable to me right now? Maybe a walk by myself around a lake where I don’t know anyone…AH! I would remember that for a good long time!

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