Been hearing Christmas carols in the malls.

It's still months away but the festive mood of the Yuletide is beginning to show once the Ber months come in. Pretty much unique in our little spot on the planet, but it's a nice feeling to have one. In other countries, it's mostly a one-day affair, after that it's gone.

So this is Christmas, and what have you done?

Listening to a Maroon 5 rendition of the song (I think Adam is talented vocalist), and I can't help but to go through all the Christmases I've went through. And it pretty much goes through one pattern: it's best when I was a kid, and sort of loses its color once I get old.

Why?

Perhaps, I had cares now that I didn't had before.

The fireworks were more colorful and noisy, the people were more jolly, and the colors of the strings and balls on the Christmas tree seem shinier. When I grew old, it became just another noisy firework, just more annoying people to please, and the mess that I have to fix just to put the Christmas tree back to storage.

I could almost see what changed, it's just that, I see it happening before me and I wasn't taking notice of it.

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."
- Tuesdays with Morrie

Maybe it's because as we grow old, the things we encounter all the time are the first things that's being taken for granted. It's a simple fact of life. It's easy to take for granted stuff that you stopped giving meaning to. I guess when the most basic and most important things in life are put aside, we begin prioritizing the wrong things and end up asking ourselves questions as to why some things are missing.

And so this will be another Christmas. Perhaps I can do something to stop giving 'another' a trite meaning. Maybe this time I won't be half-asleep when it all happens.

"Mitch," he said laughing along, "even I don't know what 'spiritual' development really means. But I do know we're deficient in some way. We are too involved in materialistic things, and they don't satisfy us. The loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted."

~~~

I remembered back years ago, that Mom gave me a birthday cake since my birthday is just a few days away from Christmas. After doing the usual round of wishing stuff in front of my family, Mom unexpectedly took a little icing from the cake and threw it at me.

And before we know it, the room has become a battle ground of pieces of icing and cake. We all had a messy, sticky feeling afterwards. But it was a hell lot of fun.