“What’s done is done. There is no need to speak to Edmund about what has passed.” – Aslan from “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”

I was watching this movie recently and heard these lines and they really stuck out to me.

In the movie, Edmund’s character had just made it back after committing an act of treachery. Aslan gave him a “talking to” and then told everyone else the lines above.

We all need someone who can give us the stern talking to when we’ve stepped out of line.

But that isn’t what really stuck out to me.

What stuck out to me in particular was the idea of letting the past be the past. No need to talk about it again.

From both perspectives.

If we are the one needing forgiveness, to let things go and move forward. Not to dwell on our mistakes but to learn from them and move forward.

If we are the ones forgiving, to not bring it up again. To let our loved ones grow and move forward from their past.

Let go of past transgressions. What’s done is done. No need to speak of it again.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is a great quote for the beginning of the year.

Each day can be the best day of the year.

If we can have that attitude 2016 will turn out to be quite a year.

So, let’s get started on the best day of the year.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“The year you were born marks only your entry into the world. Other years where you prove your worth, they are the ones worth celebrating.”

― Jarod Kintz, This Book Title is Invisible

Last Daily Attitude Email of the year.

As I am apparently in a reminding kind of mood, I’ll end with another reminder.

Celebrate!

Celebrate the year you have had.

Celebrate the things you did accomplish.

Celebrate the good times you had.

Celebrate that you are still alive.

Just celebrate something.

Make it a great day.

Jake

End of the year. New Year is coming.

For most people this is a time of setting new goals and resolutions.

As you think about what your goals might be, find a simple way to get started early.

Find some small step you can take before the new year starts and take it.

If your goal is to save money, scrounge up a few dollars and make that first deposit.

If your goal is to lose weight, eat a salad for lunch.

If your goal is to exercise more, walk around the block.

Just do something to get yourself started.

Do it before the new year starts.

Prime the pump.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Last work week of the year.

Time for my annual reminder/challenge to clear some space.

I look forward to the end of the year cleanup of my workspace.

Creating some room to hit the ground running next year is a great feeling.

So, challenge yourself to clear some space this week.

Make room for all the awesomeness you have planned for next year.

Make it a great day.

Jake

I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses. – Taylor Caldwell

This is a great reminder before Christmas comes and goes.

You are not alone.

You are loved.

You are special.

Not in a way that makes you better than everyone else.

Not in a way that makes you just like everyone else.

You are loved and special in your own way. The way only you can be.

In the Christian faith, this is the reason got sent his son on that first Christmas. For you.

If that explanation of it doesn’t work for you, I can assure you that you aren’t alone, you are loved and you are special to someone.

Merry Christmas.

Make it a great day.

Jake

“It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”

― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

This is a great thought to remember this Christmas season.

It’s so easy to get caught up with running from place to place and buying thing after thing.

Sometimes we move so fast we don’t give ourselves a chance to be affected by the laughter and good humour of others.

There are so many reasons to smile and laugh, but we have to notice them.

We have to slow down enough to catch them from others.

This week is one of those weeks that is easy to let slip by without having letting a little joy in.

Make yourself laugh this week.

Watch that favorite Christmas movie.

Share a drink with someone.

Email a joke to a friend.

Do something to make yourself and others laugh.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Zoey: What do you get if you cross an iPad with a Christmas tree?

Johnny: I don’t know. What?

Zoey: A pineapple!

Last week until Christmas

I sent out the story below last year and have thought of it often over the last year.

I hope we can all remember the last line this holiday season – Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team!

Merry Christmas.

Jake

My grandma taught me everything about Christmas. I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," jeered my sister. "Even dummies know that!"

My grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me.

"No Santa Claus!" she snorted. "Ridiculous! Don’t believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad. Now, put on your coat, and let’s go."

"Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn’t even finished my second cinnamon bun.

"Where" turned out to be Kerby’s General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days.

"Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I’ll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby’s.

I was only eight years old. I’d often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for. I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church.

I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobbie Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock’s grade-two class. Bobbie Decker didn’t have a coat. I knew that because he never went out for recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough; but all we kids knew that Bobbie Decker didn’t have a cough, and he didn’t have a coat.

I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobbie Decker a coat. I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that. I didn’t see a price tag, but ten dollars ought to buy anything. I put the coat and my ten-dollar bill on the counter and pushed them toward the lady behind it.

She looked at the coat, the money, and me. "Is this a Christmas present for someone?" she asked kindly. "Yes," I replied shyly. "It’s … for Bobbie. He’s in my class, and he doesn’t have a coat." The nice lady smiled at me. I didn’t get any change, but she put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and ribbons, and write, "To Bobbie, From Santa Claus" on it … Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy.

Then she drove me over to Bobbie Decker’s house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially one of Santa’s helpers. Grandma parked down the street from Bobbie’s house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk.

Suddenly, Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his doorbell twice and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobbie. He looked down, looked around, picked up his present, took it inside and closed the door.

Forty years haven’t dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my grandma, in Bobbie Decker’s bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: Ridiculous!

Santa was alive and well … AND WE WERE ON HIS TEAM!

https://youtu.be/MyA1zKBUhxM

Not exactly a traditional Christmas song, but this had the Davis clan tapping their toes last night.

Maggie’s class has been doing a project where they create a presentation about Christmas in different countries.

Maggie got assigned (or more likely volunteered for) Ireland.

It’s been interesting to see different traditions in a country that is seemingly very similar.

It’s a great reminder that we all have our different family traditions and how much fun that makes this time of year.

If you have a family tradition, lean into it. Make it a priority and have fun.

If you don’t have many, start one.

Make it a great Christmas.

Jake

PS – I’m out of the office next week, so I would love to have a few volunteers to send the daily attitude emails on Monday through Wednesday.

Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments. – Rose Kennedy

Well, it’s official, I’m another year older.

Each birthday can be used as a milestone along life’s journey. Marking the progress made and the distance yet to cover.

It’s healthy to look back and to honestly reflect on what you have and haven’t done. It’s healthy to set new milestones for the next year.

But the most important part might be to enjoy the moments along the way.

Enjoy the moment today.

Focus on what it is, not what it isn’t.

Notice the details.

Cherish the smiles and warm faces.

Feel the love shared.

Make it a great day.

Jake