December

A multitude of life batters my senses as I enter through frosted doors. Lights that would put the most rambunctious circus shows to shame. The sound of children’s laughter fills my ears. The smell of holly and cinnamon overwhelm me as I dazedly make my way through this assault. An assault on my senses that has rendered me into a stuporous ecstasy. Once a year we encounter such a magnificent display. A display of the death of seasons and the rebirth of spirit. A unifying force that mends all but the fiercest wounds that we inflict upon one another. Silence is broken, families are reunited. Through death or pain we unify for one glorious month of festivities. The death of fall, the birth of winter, the month of December.
I immerse myself in it and let in enfold me. That fleeting feeling that wishes to escape your grasp right as you capture it. Slipping like sand grains through your fingers. So therefore I cherish it as though it were diamonds slipping through the cracks of my fingers. That feeling called life.
Before the barren wasteland that consumes us during the latter parts of winter, we have December. A rejoice in family and season that allows us to forget the impending storms and hassles of being snowed within our homes. We have mistletoe and gingerbread houses to occupy our thoughts. Therefore as I enter through these doors, I cherish every moment I can feel life ebbing within my veins.
People swarm before my vision and within each of them I see a mad desire to succeed. A desire to find the perfect something for that perfect someone. To find that quintessential something that will bring their loved one the utmost happiness. Though, it is not that mad desire to please that strikes me the most. It is that hollow space within all of us that wants to feel contentment. Contentment in giving someone else happiness. That feeling that seizes us when we’ve done a truly great thing. A miniature miracle that we somehow produce when we can look outside ourselves and see that other people are in need of us. That feeling that immerses us all within this web called the holidays.
Therefore I propose a toast to a month that far outshines the other eleven. Not with great weather or a dazzling display of flowers but with a sense of spirit. Spirit that permeates our senses much like the chill of the oncoming winter. Therefore I thank you for reminding me every year that there are things worth living for. Those sights and sounds that fill me with the greatest joy I’ve ever known and dull the pain of living the lives we live. So here I am within the mall on the 2nd of December and I am soaking it all in as though I were the sponge cleaning up that spilt eggnog.