Slowing down to speed up again

It is nearly Christmas, which is crazy...It seems like this year has flown by faster than most. Of course I spent the first half of it being lost in a depressed stupor and then several more months to get back to "normal," whatever that is.  But seriously I feel like I just blinked and eleven months flew by without me seeing much. I hear that it gets even more that way the older you get.

I was thinking about this last night while I was watching the meteor shower on the roof of my house. My siblings were with me for most of it, but there were several times when they had gone down to get something and took awhile to get back, so I had time for deep introspection. Shooting stars are amazing things. Some are brighter than others, some are slower than most, but they all last just a few seconds or less. If I wasn't looking at exactly the right spot or blinked I could miss the beginning of a brilliant shooting star and only catch it dying at the end. It was also very cold last night and every time I talked smoke would come out of my mouth and disappear into the night. By these things I was reminded that life is a vapor. We live and then we die.

So as I laughed at my sister's pure, childlike giddiness at each falling meteor and smiled as I and my brother had to remind her that we had neighbors who would not appreciate her exuberance, I cherished the moments. I  cherished listening to Andrew Bell with my not-so-little baby brother, and listening to my brothers argue whether Professor X or Q (Star Trek: The Next Generation, for those of you that are less nerdy) would win in a battle if Prof X was given omniscience by some magical stone in the Marvel Universe, or who would win if they added their allies. I cherished bundling up in mountains of covers, and being sandwiched between my brothers to stay warm, and too-chocolatety hot chocolate in a thermos which lid wasn't screwed on right so I had to drink it with my lips right next to the handle.

After the craziness of this past semester, dealing badly with stress, trying to figure out where my life is going, and trying to find a place to fit by expanding my list of places I want to move to, it was good to slow down and just enjoy the time I have in the place I am now, with the people I love the most.