324 days of not yelling, 41 days of loving more to go!
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”
~ Anatole France
*
I had the most magical Christmas. Yes, there were many things that made it wonderful, but there was only one thing that made it truly magical. It wasn’t the twinkling of candles in the luminaire that lined our entire street on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t the twinkling in my boy’s eyes when they saw what Santa left. And it wasn’t the twinkling of the champagne I had at dinner that made Christmas magical. No, it wasn’t any of these things. Instead, it was my oldest son reminding me to believe more often because you just never know what magical thing might take place….
Hope whatever holiday you celebrate has been magical,
The Orange Rhino
*
We were all settled around the kitchen table enjoying our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Spaghetti and meatballs. As #1 poured “snow” (parmesan cheese) on his meatballs he paused and looked at us.
“Mommy, daddy, will it snow this Christmas? Will it be a white Christmas? It has to be so Santa’s sleigh can get here. Without snow it won’t work.”
“Oh sweetie, I’m sorry but there probably won’t be snow tomorrow. It doesn’t always snow on Christmas. In fact, it rarely does.” I said like a true, crotchety old lady who no longer believed in anything extraordinary.
“But it just has to. It has to snow!” he cried.
“We’re sorry babe, it’s just not in the forecast” daddy chimed in.
#1 stopped talking and looked sullenly down at his meal. He twirled his spaghetti, pushed it around his plate, but didn’t really eat it.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Aren’t you hungry? Aren’t you excited for tomorrow?”
“I am. But I am really sad that it won’t snow. I really wish it would snow. I asked Santa for it to snow you know. And the clouds looked like snow today. It’s going to snow. I know it is.”
The truth? My husband and I hadn’t even looked at the forecast. We had no idea what weather the evening or tomorrow would hold. After years of non-snow-filled Christmas, we just assumed it wouldn’t. We stopped believing in white Christmases years ago. We had lost hope. We had lost the beautiful innocence that came with being a child.
We proceeded to finish dinner with a very disappointed six year old then read “’Twas the night before Christmas” before leaving out cookies and carrots for Santa and Rudolph. We tucked the boys in and ran downstairs to start the mad rush of getting all the presents out, assembled, and organized for tomorrow.
As I paused to nurse a new cut caused by untwisting one too many plastic ties from a toy box, a car passed by outside. The headlights lit up the night and what I saw amazed me.
SNOW.
Snow. Snow. Snow. Falling peacefully from the night sky blanketing our street in the most perfect dusting of white. It was a beautiful site. The most perfect type of snow in fact; the romantic kind that falls slowly and lightly and just makes you stop and pause and think what a beautiful world it really is.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Oh sweetheart!” I exclaimed to my husband. “#1 was right! It is snowing outside. Can you believe it? Oh, it’s the best gift ever to him!”
Tears filled my eyes. I was overjoyed that my child’s simple wish had come true. I was overjoyed at the thought of how happy he would be the next morning. I was overwhelmed when I realized how children always believe; how they don’t let negative thoughts, or people, get in their way from wishing and hoping.
At that moment I wanted to run upstairs and wake my sleeping son and tell him the good news. I wanted to tell him that his wish came true, that it was snowing and that he should never, ever, stop believing in his dreams, in himself, no matter how many naysayers he comes across.
We did decide to wake him up; it was just too magical not to. We slowly opened his door and crept to his bed. As I opened the blinds he sat up, rubbing his eyes all confused.
“Look!” I whispered. “It’s snowing! It’s really snowing. Your wish came true!”
“Oh” he slurred still half asleep. “My snow came. Does that mean Santa’s here?” Then he plopped his head back down and resumed snoring leaving me no opportunity to tell him my don’t stop believin’ spiel.
Staring in awe!!!
So instead, I share it with you. Don’t stop believing! Believe in yourself that you can stop yelling. I can’t assure you that it will happen overnight but I can assure you that it will happen someday and that if you don’t believe in yourself, it will never happen.
Go for it. Dream of changing. Believe that you can. You just never know what might happen.
