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The holiday season is officially among us, my dear friends! That also means we’re closing out another year.

A lot can happen in a year and there may be many “firsts” coming up!

• A newborn baby's 1st Christmas!

• Newlywed's 1st Thanksgiving together!

• 1st holiday season back home from being deployed!

As we traverse through life, especially the holidays it’s important to also remember that this Thanksgiving very well may be be a child's 1st with only one parent due to a recent divorce. It can be a grandparent’s 1st holiday season in a nursing home with no visitors. It can also, tragically, be a parent's 1st Christmas without their son or daughter who recently passed away...

With the hustle and bustle of the holidays it can be easy to just put our heads down and neglect what really matters, what this time of year is supposed to really be about. People.

There's people celebrating alone, y’all. There’s people suffering. It could be your neighbor across the street or a coworker down the hall. Life is beautiful and it can also be tragic.

Mike Tyson, on life’s beauty as it pertains to accepting loss of life (hearing him say it to a guest on his podcast hits different, its powerful, watch 1 min video here):

“Life is beautiful but you have to accept the good and the bad as being beautiful… Life is beautiful because life gives us the ability to just know them on our journey in life. We met them, we loved them, we cared about them, they cared about us. That’s the purpose of life, to enjoy what we have while we journey through it.”

Just last week, a friend and former client of mine lost her 17 year old son. I also trained her oldest son. She lost a son and he lost a brother.

My heart absolutely breaks for that family.

I can’t imagine. As a parent, I think I can speak for all of us when I say our biggest fear is to outlive our kids.

I will never forget sitting in Brandon’s parents’ home with his sister and mom, searching for pictures as we prepared for his funeral in 2019. All three of us were crying and his sister said to their mom, “Mom, I’m so sorry. I lost my brother, Mike lost a best friend, but you lost a son. I’m so sorry”…

I can’t make sense of it so I won’t even begin to try.

I just know that many of our neighbors— strangers and loved ones alike— walk around us presenting a smile while we remain blind (sometimes willfully) to the guise of it to hide their broken heart and the excess weight on their shoulders.

This holiday season, and every day moving forward let us commit to keeping things in perspective more regularly. Focusing, more deliberately, on what really matters most— people. May we pledge to show more compassion, live with more gratitude, and lets intentionally grant each other more grace, our personal selves included.

• TODAY, acknowledge someone who crosses your path regularly yet has remained a stranger.

• TODAY, if you're hurting, reach out. We're not mind readers.

• TODAY, do your damnest to be a mind-reader, reach out to someone who may be struggling.

• TODAY, go out of your way to make a stranger smile.

Just as Iron Mike stated, life's beauty is intertwined with its fragility, which should remind us to cherish every moment. The good, the bad, and yes, even the tragic. And to be there for as many other people as humanly possible throughout our journey.

We only get one life and it won't last forever so cherish your loved ones and the time you have with them. Let’s go give all we can with all we got to impact the world together.

Happy Turkey day, y’all.

And please never forget:

The world is so much bigger than you, your beliefs, and your feelings so no matter how someone celebrates the holiday season, let them! I’m talking specifically to the people on either side of the “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holiday” greeting. If someone says “Merry Christmas” to you, let them! If they would rather say “Happy Holidays”, let them! If you get your panties in a wad one way or the other then you, my friend, have completely lost sight of what really matters this time of year. You’re better than that.

Much love, mi gente!

- Mike O’Hara

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