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. And no better year than in the beast of a year we have just had.
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. Nobody is looking forward to a dreary month of nowhere to go and nothing to do, least of all those who will lose their jobs and their businesses. But this seems to be the price we have to pay in order to give the health service the breathing space it needs, then we have little choice but to modify our behaviour, even if it means abandoning the traditional Christmas gatherings and foregoing the trimmings of winter normality.
So, many of us are forced back to a type of Christmas with which we grew up. Where there was no going out for a few days or nights, when everything revolved around the home and the fire.
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.
And do this after a year where we have already spent much time at home. 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.
