Christmas in July

For some reason today I woke up thinking about the movie It's a Wonderful Life. I used to see it on tv at Christmas time frequently as a kid and then as I grew older, I didn't really have patience for it. In fact, I lost much of my fascination with Christmas as it became increasingly commercialized. My birthday is in early November. When I was really little, Christmas decorations weren't up in stores that soon. Now, I've seen Christmas stuff on shelves as early as the week before Halloween. This past Christmas I finally watched the movie again and its timeless simplicity made me love it all over again. I suppose it also didn't hurt that Alissia loves Christmas and her enthusiasm rekindled mine a bit. (Something I'm sure my mother appreciates as well, as she LOVES Christmas decorations and the possibility exists of me helping her decorate again. :))

When my brother was in elementary school, he was in a school play with a song number called Christmas in July. I can't remember many of the words but it seems fitting for the July blog challenge to have at least one about Christmas. Except that It's a Wonderful Life isn't Really a Christmas movie. It's more about the place of each individual life in the bigger picture. If I stop to think about it, how many peoples' lives would be irreparably different if I hadn't been here?

It's really easy to think of my mistakes, to cite the times when my best at the time wasn't all I could have wished. I know that I'm not alone in that. How many of us really take the time to note the moments where we're perfectly happy with how we showed up? We all have an inner critic, quick to tell us why we aren't good enough. So where is the voice that says, "Remember that time when you really took charge and kept a crisis under control? What about the people who you've taught things to? Oh and even though you conned your little brother into doing your chores sometimes, you also really loved him and looked out for him."

I think the best possible Christmas gift I can give myself this July is a list of my accomplishments. Not necessarily the ones on my resume, or at least not Just those. I'm going to think of the people who I have loved, moved in some way, helped, served. While I'm going to skip morbidly contemplating what the world would look like without me, I am going to think of exactly what the world looks like because of me. I'm going to store that list somewhere I can refer to it when my inner critic is having a field day.

What kinds of things are on your accomplishment list? Do you remember or is it time to sit down and get them down in writing so they aren't as easy to overlook? Feel free to join me in my new July tradition. While I think that this exercise would be worthwhile all the time, I'm specifically committing to attending to it at Least every July. :)