Give Me a Memory

The weather has been rather peculiar as of late. This time of year in Montana, the sky is usually clouded over and it has been threatening to snow. Although the cold is enough to make people bundle up before venturing outdoors, the sky is a clear, cloudless blue, the sorts of which we usually only see during the summer when it's ninety degrees and people are taking every chance they can get to go swimming. Not that I'm complaining; I love the sun and have been very happy to wake up to sunshine instead of clouds, as much as I want it to snow. There's something magical about the time of year between Halloween and New Years. Fall is just coming to a close and winter is just starting up, or at least that's what mother nature says, even though according to the calendar winter doesn't being until December 21 or so. Christmas shopping is something I look forward to with great anticipation. I've already begun looking for presents for people, and can't wait to do some serious shopping. There's something about giving someone else a gift that makes me incredibly happy; I love shopping for other people just as much, if not more than I enjoy shopping for myself. I know a lot of people who hate Christmas shopping, and put it off until the last minute (i.e. Christmas Eve). If you are one of those people think about this: when you get someone a gift than comes from your heart, that you went and put a lot of thought into, you are giving them a much greater gift than if you glanced down at their wishlist and got them the first thing on it. When you do your Christmas shopping this year leave the wishlists at home and look for the things you know will make them happiest. If you know your son has been drooling over those roller blades for the past four months, go looking for them, put time and thought into it, and while you're doing it think of his face when he opens them Christmas morning. There's nothing quite like watching someone's face light up when they see the gift you got them, when they realize that not only did you get them that thing they've been wanting for quite some time, but that to choose that particular one you had to put thought and time into it. When someone glances down at my wishlist and gets me the first thing on the list I do appreciate it partly because they did get me something and partly because it was something I had wanted. But when someone gets me the thing I want and puts thought and intention behind it, it means that much more to me. If you've read my post "only for now" then you know more about my stance on this and money. It's something I think about often. Money doesn't buy me happiness. Does that $800 subwoofer in the back of my car make me happy? Yes. Is it extremely important to me? No. The one thing that may buy me happiness is the plane ticket Sohneya and I are going to buy in a couple weeks, but it's not the ticket that makes me happy, it's where the ticket gets me: in his arms. When you give someone something give them a memory as well, give it more depth than it had while it was sitting on its shelf in the store. As I told Sohneya a couple weeks ago, "Don't give me a possession, give me a memory."