Christmas Reflections 2025

 

Something feels a bit off this Christmas and it's not what you think. I remember when my daughter was very young she casually mentioned how she could relate to the Green Day song Boulevard of broken Dreams and it broke my heart. 

Sometimes life doesn't work out the way we had hoped and not until time passes can we see that it was for the best. I'm not talking about death. That's always going to leave an emptiness. 

The majority of my family have passed away and that makes Christmas very different. So we do our best to try and carry on those traditions. Sometimes we succeeded, sometimes we fail but we always try. We always do our best.

My daughter commented on an ap that tracks your screen time and she was shocked how many hours a day she spent scrolling on her phone so she started to read books like she used to. That's a good use of free time. 

So I bought two new books. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and a 501 French Verbs dictionary. I want to start sharpening up my French vocab. My kids speak so many languages, I need to improve. I admire their gift. 

I always talk about the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and how it had such a profound influence on my life yet to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if I've ever read it. Certainly not cover to cover. I usually take selected pieces and find my own hidden meaning. So this year I'm going to reread that book and reflect on what it means to me now. 

I often quote the title page because I find that most significant. Yet in the introduction to the 25th Anniversary of the book I find a sincere reflection. He said instead of basking in the huge success of the book which would defeat it's purpose, he wanted to write about the books failures and try to correct them. 

As we reflect on our successes and failures in life perhaps that kind of brutal honesty will lead us to where we really wanted to go all along. He mentions the Hollywood ending of the original book and how that wasn't the original intent. 

Then he adds a Zen twist and I'm like well done. As a parent all you want in life is for your kids to be happy. Setbacks occur and the road changes directions yet we do our best to keep moving forward. One time in my life I adopted the saying no turning back because it was appropriate at that time. 

In Anna Nalick's song Breathe (2 AM) she states "you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable And life's like an hourglass glued to the table No one can find the rewind button, girl So cradle your head in your hands And breathe, just breathe."

"There's a light at each end of this tunnel you shout Cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out And these mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again If you only try turning around" so breathe and move forward. That's how we grow. 

We shouldn't dwell on our mistakes lest we repeat them but we should recognize them so we can make course corrections in our future journey. The key is to make the course correction and forgive yourself so our mistakes don't hold us back like sandbags on a hot air balloon. Turn the helm and lift anchor.