Look after the little things in life. Because one day the time will come when you realise they are the big things. And there is no better time to find this out than at this time of the year.
In the days leading up to a normal Christmas, it is easy to be consumed by the enormity of it all; pushing ourselves through heartache and stress, and losing the familial feel of togetherness Christmas once had, when there was nothing else or nowhere else to go to.
Once again, we face into a Christmas that is not as we thought it would be. After the lockdowns of recent years, we thought we would have had a year of relief and celebration, but it has been a year tinged with sadness at the ongoing horror in Ukraine. Even here in Ireland, there has been much tragedy;the murder of Aisling Murphy in Tullamore which stunned the country, the sad stories from Creeslough, the killing of Private Sean Rooney in Lebanon.
In life we tend to compare Christmas like no other time of year. We all have varied memories of being awed by the colour and majesty of it all. It was a time that brought wonder to us, and yet, even in these days where wonder is a rarer commodity, it has the capacity to stay in the mind.
So we have a duty to create memories, to remind people of the spirit of the season and to arm people with these cushions of comfort as they go throughout life.
Our gift to each other this Christmas should be the gift of time. The hardest thing in the world now is to tell yourself to slow down, to sit down, to chat, to share, to play a game with a child, to chat with someone for whom a few words means a lot.
Get down on the floor and share the games; take it easy on the booze. Don’t let your children have Christmas memories that revolve around drunkenness and rows.
Adults have a responsibility to create memories for those whose lives will stretch away decades and decades into the future. As keepers of the flame of memory, do what you can to lift someone’s heart, to restore the honest decency of friendship and love.
On behalf of the management and staff of the Galway Advertiser and its sister newspapers around the country, I would like to wish you a very happy and fulfilling Christmas.
We thank you for your loyalty and for allowing us the opportunity to inform, entertain, and, no doubt, occasionally infuriate you over the past year.
We thank those who support us through advertising, which allows us to sustain this wonderfully Galway medium;
We thank you too for your comments, both for and against our commitment to allow as many diverse voices as possible to be heard through our pages and on our increasingly popular Facebook and Twitter facilities.
Thank you for letting us into your homes and into your minds. Be forever aware that we will always be backing our community, your community, to be a positive presence in your corner.
Thar cheann an Galway Advertiser gach dea ghuí i gcomhair na Nollag agus na hathbhliana.
