It is 3 days to Christmas and everyone down here is buzzing with Christmas spirit. Cards are being exchanged, company Christmas parties are well underway, high street stores are filled with shoppers trying to last-minute gifts for their friends and family. Christmas lights and decorations adorn the streets and door posts. It is indeed an exciting time alive and I am so glad that we have made it this far into the year.

Amidst my happiness, I am also aware of the pain that families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The shooting took place on the 14th of December, 2012 in Newtown Connecticut, United States of America, where a 20 year old young man opened gun fire killing his mother at her home, 20 school children and 6 adults before finally killing himself in an act that I can only describe as utterly sick and incomprehensible.

As I sit here pondering while reading through the descriptions of the victims, most of whom were around 6 years of age, it saddens me that these kids were not given the chance to live a full life as we know it. I personally would probably never understand what must have gone through Adam Lanza’s mind to allow him hatch and execute this senseless act on poor unsuspecting victims. One thing I am sure of though is the fact that his name will forever go down in history as the young man who was responsible for the unfair and unjust killings of these beautiful people.

These thoughts have got me pondering on the impression we leave in the hearts of people around us. “If you die today, would you be remembered as that loud, inconsiderate and irascible woman/man who didn’t mind trampling upon people as long as his/her goal was achieved?”, “Would you be remembered as dishonest person, a gossip or perhaps would people have no recollection of you because you have made no clear impact on people’s lives?” “Would people hear about your passing on and heave a sigh of relief?” “Would people only pay lip service to you at your funeral?”

I know all these may sound slightly harsh, but with the end of 2012 drawing ever so near, I believe now is the perfect time to take stock of our lives with the awareness that life on earth as we know it is fleeting. It is indeed the perfect time to make lasting decisions to be the best person we can be from now on. Let us make the decision to quit all unnecessary concerns and competition and decide to look within, bearing in mind that we humans on earth are supposed to be a reflection of God’s kindness and love.

Let this thought consume and shape our responses to events and our behaviour towards each other. Let us ask ourselves how we would feel if we were on the receiving end of our words, actions and inactions. Let this awareness shape the way we think about ourselves and the people around us.

I believe that a constant awareness of this would help us shape how we conduct ourselves from now on, into 2013 and beyond.

I wish you a happy and fulfilling Christmas celebration.

Love,
Chika

Image from conversapequena.blogspot.co.uk