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The Ghosts of Christmases Past in the Finger Lakes

Non -Functional Mechanical Clock on Canandaigua City Hall

How are you doing on your time management this year? Did you have enough time to get your Christmas cards out this year? Was there enough time to bake all of the cookies that you wanted to bake? Did you have time to read that book that you wanted to read?

A Modern Clock on Main Street, Canandaigua

Time seems to weight heavily on my Finger Lakes mind at the end of each year. It starts when I begin to think back to the time when I was growing up on our family farm – back to the time when Christmases were shared with parents, grandparents, and my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Time seemed so much more manageable in those days. There was a time to get up in the morning, time to do my chores, time to go to school or to church, and time to go to bed at night.

Crown Jewelers, Main Street, Canandaigua

My mother had a way of dealing with time: She wouldn’t let things that had already happened bother her. “Don’t cry over spilt milk”, or “what is past is over and done with,” she used to say! And when you think about it, this reduces all of our worries about time to just one day. And then each day becomes just like a Christmas present which is to be opened at the beginning of the day, enjoyed throughout the day, and put away at day’s end!

James R. Bupp

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