Only three months until Christmas, {{contact.first_name}}

Hey ,

Have you noticed the changes? The mornings are darker. The street lights are coming on earlier. We've had a few days of rain. The temperature is dropping.

Summer is just about over.

In this part of the world, it also means that Christmas is getting close. It's only a bit over three months away. 

Where does the time go? It doesn't seem so long ago that here in Frankfurt I watched the Christmas Market set up. That was mid-November last year and it is quickly rolling around once more.

Looking back, I can see that I have been busy. There are the city trips I have taken and the craft projects I've finished. Oh, and there are the routine things like teaching classes, keeping my flat clean, going shopping...

Is that why it feels like time passes so quickly? Is it because we're so busy? For me it's even worse when there is a lot of pressure. I become so focussed on tasks and meeting deadlines that I can lose sight of the things happening around me. Like the leaves changing colour on the trees. Or the full moon rising over the skyline on a cloudless evening.

How was it when you were a child? Did you have Saturdays where you did so many things in one day that time must have stopped? Did it feel like the summer holidays went on forever (but you were never bored)? That the time between one Christmas or your birthday and the next seemed just forever?

But now the days, weeks and months pass so quickly.

To balance this, I make myself look for and enjoy the smaller things in life. The things that are easy to walk past without seeing, because I'm just so busy.

Things like spring blossom, new leaves or baby birds and animals. The sun shining on water, or highlighting buildings. The golden colours of autumn and falling leaves. An unusual car.

If you are wondering where the year went, then please take a moment and slow down. There is more to life than ticking things off our 'To Do' list. Look around and focus on the beautiful, amazing or just plain crazy things around you. And if you feel like it, tell me about what you see.

'Bye for now,

Andrea