flashinthepan

I’ve been coming to a slow realization over the past year or so that I’m starting to get older. Yes, I know that birthdays are supposed to slap us in the face with this fact every year, but I haven’t really felt it that much. Maybe the effects are being amplified by the stress in my job of late and the fact that I get blessed little exercise (partly due to the stress in my job of late). One thing I know, I can’t treat my body the way I did when I was 25 and get away without paying for it.

This is all too obvious to me today as I barely seem to be able to stay awake at my desk. Thursday night, I stayed up until 1 AM working on a Flash banner ad for work. I said to myself, 5 hours sleep, I can function on that tomorrow. Unfortunately, 1 hour later, Keilan woke up colicky and at 4:17 AM I started to lose it. Good thing Christy woke up and she graciously spelled me off.

The next day was better than I expected, but after work I had to drive to Creston to pick up two of my other kids. Talk about a late night. I got into Creston around midnight and was out for 10 hours as soon as my head hit the pillow. Six hours after that I was back on the highway headed for Calgary. Sunday was fairly restful, but not enough I guess.

A good point from the Sermon on Sunday and one I saw again in the Bible story I read my kids last night brought it to realization for me: our bodies were originally designed to last forever, but we broke them when we allowed sin into the world. Wow, is that ever true. I no longer feel invincible like I used to. I’m NOT 25 anymore…

Last weekend we were invited out to the Sundre, Alberta area by some friends to find a Christmas tree. This is something that we’ve been doing for the past few years and it’s become somewhat of a tradition in our family which we look forward to with great anticipation each year.

There’s just something about taking the kids and driving away from the hustle and bustle of the city to spend the day with friends and their children. Life and work in Calgary just gets too hectic and it’s easy to forget the important things in life. Sometimes we just need to stop and take a break and spend time with the ones around us that we care about.

Last year when we went, it was very cold, so only my eldest son and I along with most of the other adults went hunting for the ideal “Charlie Brown Christmas tree.” The rest of the kids stayed inside, supervised of course, and they still had a very good time.

This year, the weather was much nicer so all the kids came along to find the trees. The kids got pulled on tobogans and they had a blast.

I think the highlight of the whole afternoon came after finding the Christmas trees. We went back to the house, shared a meal together and watched 14 small children instantly become friends. Granted, they weren’t all strangers to each other, but it’s amazing to watch how kids can walk up to one another, introduce themselves and just play. Somewhere along the line we seem to lose that as adults with all of our responsibilities and hang-ups.

The bottom line in all of this is that life is just too busy. Take the time to slow down and spend some quality time with the people you care about in your life. It doesn’t have to be going out and cutting down your own Christmas tree (although if you have kids, I’d highly recommend it). Spend some time with your loved ones doing things that you all enjoy. You won’t regret that you did.