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December 25, 2007
Christmas Day
In the last few days I have wrapped and had unwrapped presents for family and friends from the age of 14 months to 68-years-old and enjoyed every one of them. Sure it’s crazy and chaotic but that’s half the fun.
Today was one of the most interesting Christmas’s I’ve ever experienced. I watched a 14 month old try to open packages, play with bows and paper, and get hugged and kissed by everyone he encountered. I also had a one armed man, covered with tattoos, from a background quite different than mine, tell me he had never grown up with Christmases like this one and he was grateful he got to experience ours.
I sometimes take all of Christmas for granted, all of the enjoyment of the season, the gift giving, family and friends. It’s what I did as a child and it’s what my children know, but today I watched two people experience what I know as real, at least my real. A child who knows no other experience will come to believe this is the way it is and should be. A man with a new experience may come to know there is something out there other than what he experienced as a child.
It is easier for the baby. He has nothing else to compare to, no thinking to change. He can trust this as something that will happen again. To our new gentleman’s experience, as enjoyable as it may have been, there are old messages, past Christmas’s and a lifetime of learned history.
My focus is always on what children learn. Today I got to see, again, how important a child’s experience is. What a child learns as he or she grows up, is what he or she acts out and recreates is adulthood. I recreate my past joy of Christmas and I watched my daughter do the same for herself, her husband, her small nephew and a new guest.
Christmas is only one day a year, but what we learn, think about and experience every day, every minute of every day, affects the continuing experiences and outcomes of our lives. I want the best experience possible every single minute. I want the best experience possible for every child so they can grow up to share those experiences with their children.
I hope today was, as one of my other young friends said to me this week, “This is the best Christmas I’ve ever had.” Make every day the best day you’ve ever had for yourself and the children around you.
Posted by Dr Joni at December 25, 2007 07:59 PM