Give Away As Many Smiles as You Can....They are FREE!

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

Let your heart be light

From now on

our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Make the Yule-tide gay

From now on,

our troubles will be miles away

Here we are as in olden days,

Happy golden days of yore.

Faithful friends who are dear to us

Gather near to us once more.

Through the years

We all will be together,

If the Fates allow.

Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow

And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

With the lyrics to this song in your head, take a field trip to Wal-Mart, Target, The Dollar Tree.....wherever there are Christmas shoppers by the dozens.

The very first two lines will challenge even the best of those determined to keep the Christmas  spirit alive.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Let your heart be light.

Parking....we'll go with Wal-Mart, since I'm there frequently! My MO is to go for the golden spot first and if it's not there, go out a little ways to avoid the congestion and orphaned carts left to dance their way into the side of my car. Either way, I am parked and say to myself, "I'm going in!" (the lightness that was just in my heart moments ago....while singing out loud in my best Adele voice..........gone!)

After test driving multiple carts inspecting for good wheels, I am off and running.  List in one hand and pen in the other, I'm on a mission to find Jake and the Neverland Pirates and WHAM the cart behind me runs up the back of my heel and triggers a domino effect of not only 'the look', but the eye-roll to go with it.  I know you didn't MEAN to do that, but daggone if my heel isn't screaming right now.  And, yes....by all means.....Have yourself a MERRY little Christmas! (How's that for tone?)

Heartbreak....My heart?  I'm protective of my heart.  It only takes a heart break of two or three or four to build that wall up nice and high.  And really, whether at 17 or 51, a heart still breaks.

What causes a heart to break?  We are all adults here and don't think it takes a list.  And we'd all have a different one.  Relationships in general can bring about a heart break....it could be that Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song, the loss of someone and the empty feeling as we try to grieve and move on...But it could also be that sweet, yet so sad video I saw on Facebook today.

A sweet baby boy lost his mother and his aunt was singing a song that his mother used to sing to him.  Upon recognition, his face lit up and he had the sweetest smile.  However, it didn't take long for the tears to appear.  Big 'ol alligator tears.  My heart broke for him because even at his young age, he recognized the song that once brought happiness to his little life and now he didn't know whether to smile, cry or both.  Heartbreak.

I truly believe that God allows us to experience such pain because we grow....and because it opens up our hearts to do something kind for someone else.  If you are ever feeling down, try doing something nice for someone else, without wanting or needing something in return.  I promise you, it will make you feel better.

However, please know that if you are the recipient of said kindness, accept it with an open heart because remember the giver may be in need of some positive energy.  How amazing and wonderful should it feel that someone cares so much that when they were feeling low, they decided to give you a smile, when they didn't even have one themselves?  

I'm sorry things stink right now.  I can't give you the moon or make everything better, but here's a hug and a wish for you to have a merry little Christmas.(Quite a different tone from the Wal-mart incident.  You could almost feel the attitude before)

As the song goes....if we surround ourselves with faithful friends who are dear to us....gather near to us.....it might just help those troubles to be miles away...or even out of sight!

And to wrap it all up and the real reason we should do our best to have a merry little Christmas.......Through the years we all will be together, if the Fates allow.  Until then, all we can do it muddle through and give away as many smiles as we can......as many hugs....even to the Richard Petty wanna be driving the cart at Wal-Mart.

.....And have yourself a merry little Christmas now!

Love ya and Merry Christmas!

Robin