In past years, I’d be up getting the turkey and other side dishes ready for a big holiday meal. The fact that I been doing this since I retired my mother from the kitchen (since 2005)  says that this year was gonna be different. Instead of fighting with a 15-pound Butterball turkey, I ‘chillaxed’ with Good Morning America. I traded peeling sweet potatoes for workout clothes and sneakers. I traded standing on my feet for hours, for jogging in my neighborhood.

It wasn’t fully abandoning the Christmas cooking that made this holiday special (I left it up to an on-sale pre-made lasagna), it was pausing to live life in the moment. No agenda. No plan. Just taking in the hours as they came. This Christmas I  tasted the sweetness of the morning, breathed in the aroma of the neighborhood’s culinary culture (I live in a predominantly Caribbean neighborhood) and hearing kids play with their new bikes and toys. As the day progressed, I filled my little sanctuary in the outskirts of Miami Gardens with all the Christmas music I could stand and danced in the sweetness of the moment. Be it single, “booed” up or married, I’m sure those who celebrate Christmas were in the busy-ness of their own rituals. For me, I was doing something new: pausing to breathe in the day…………. until mom called to announce that she’s ready to eat.