Making New Memories This Holiday Season

In this season of memory-making, I want to share my deep appreciation for the lessons of the year. We've lost track of how long it's been since the Before Times, when we could book travel, go shopping, and gather multiple generations around our table without checking charts, getting tested, and matching our masks to our outfits.

Our days have been unimaginable and uncertain: separation, anxiety, conflict, worry, and longing.

Who else feels they've earned a PhD in Epidemiology? We took the science of social distancing and turned it into an art. We took impersonal technology and created spaces to learn, share, connect, and hope. We found ways to touch hearts if not hands; to move forward if not as freely. We spent holidays apart, making do with FaceTime and phone calls, with promises that the next one would be different.

Learn How to Carpe Diem Every Single Day

This holiday season does feel different. The stores are crowded again, roads are clogged, and Thanksgiving was full of food, football, and gratitude. We are together again! Traditions are back on, hugs are happening, loved ones feel loved deeply. I appreciate everything so much more now after having lost it for so long.

I'm so thankful for how we've taken care of each other and recognize that every moment matters. Life can change on a dime, in the most unexpected ways, and we have to pivot. It's so important to gather all the goodness of our lives so it can sustain us, help us move through the harder times.

This is a period of goodness! Find the time to sink in and soak it up:

• light the candles, sip the hot chocolate, play the music, watch the cheesy movies, wrap the gifts
• slow down and play with the kids, walk in the mountains, bake cookies together
• put your phone in a drawer so you can see the light in someone's eyes, hear their laughter, and feel their hug as you snuggle on the couch

It's the most wonderful time of the year and these little moments are all that really matter. Simplify. Settle into the spirit of joy and love that is swirling everywhere this month.

If your To Do list doesn't bring you peace, let it go. Breathe deeply and remember how much all you wanted was to be Together. May it be so. May it be memorable.