It's a wonderful life

Is anyone else out there stressed to the max over one single day that rolls around on the same date every year? I just realized that today is December 16th, 9 days from the main event. There is no tree in my house, the decorations are half way complete and the gift list is long. I have no menu planned for my Christmas eve guests, not a cookie baked and I think maybe my hair is starting to fall out.

Sound familiar? I have never, not ever, been this far behind. I need a Clarence. I need an angel and an angle to figure it out this year. Part in blame is the puppy that stole my heart and my sanity that now lives with me, the other part is that I resigned one job to do my own thing and fortunately ended up being busier than I ever thought.

But yet I have had time to wonder what would have happened I had never been. The list of naughty and nice could be long, but I think of the little things in life that have hopefully made an impact. Years ago I met a young man that worked in a telemarketing room where I was employed as the marketing person. He came to me distressed because he wanted to resign his supervisor position to apply to medical school. I sat him down, told him to look at the big picture and wrote him a glowing letter of recommendation.  His father later contacted me to tell me he had been accepted to med school, so proud and happy I could hear him beaming through the phone.  I wonder where that young man is  now. I wonder about the lives he has touched. I wonder if Clarence would approve of that moment in time.

'Tis the season to pay it forward, and sometimes it doesn't cost a dime. Maybe that is truly the best gift of all.