Christmas 2013 a post from the past

Times Long Past
Time flies. Time passes. Time stops. As Madonna tells us, time goes by, so slowly. Yet it marches for all of us at one speed or another. However there is something about the end of the year that takes us all back, through it. The happy times of the year when we kissed someone, the terrible time when someone died, the medium time when we are simply surfing Netflix for SOME streaming movie worth watching. This time of year makes us pause and take stock.
It is indeed, a good thing.
As I was driving all over town today I was leaving one Christmas gathering, and driving cross town to meet another friend. Later I needed to pick up my mother to facilitate her errands and I had friends to meet later on in another part of town to, and this all before my family springing evening movie plans on me, my phone rang while I was driving, so I pulled into a fast food parking lot to answer the phone. It was a friend needing to cancel out on one of my myriad planned rendezvous. I was thrilled. Then they wanted to reschedule before I left town. While I opened up my calendar on my iPhone to coordinate this- texts started coming in from some folk, then emails, then a Facebook notification. I politely told my friend I would text them to work this all out later and said goodbye. I turned my phone off. Completely off and turned off my car and sat. 
I stopped.
I listened to the wind being pushed by the cars. I heard the orders being yelled into the speaker box at the fast food joint. I just sat for about 12 minutes. 
I stopped
. It was glorious. No texts, no blaring Christmas songs. No emails, no Twitter notifications. 
Suddenly it was 1996 and there was no social media, no email to my phone, and 
I stopped
It was so beautiful to be with the silence, and actually crowd out the noise and just be with how I felt. Being mindfully aware allowed me to feel real joy. 
Please sometime this season, take a moment to unplug, turn off, and be with your loving self. It’s recharging and refreshing.
Just stop.