A Celebration of Small Things

As of midnight tomorrow, we are down to the last month of this year; yep, today is the last day of the next to last month of this year. I find that almost impossible to believe especially when I recall my 'Things I'll Do' list for 2016 was lost about forty-five minutes after I accomplished compiling it.

I'm a half-full glass kind of a guy so I tell myself I've set the bar lower for next year's list and hope for the best. Sometimes we're in such a rush to get to what's next and new, we look through or past moments we could and should savor.

We had just such a moment, in an extended form, this past holiday weekend and I hope you had an opportunity to enjoy some of it. Hopefully no one was so busy with the nuts and bolts of the Thanksgiving Day meal and shopping rush afterward to not appreciate the efforts of friends and neighbors from all across the city for Friday's Lighting of City Hall followed on Saturday in rapid succession by the Norwich Winterfest 5K Road Race and then The Winterfest Parade from Chelsea Parade to Franklin Square.

We may not agree on any aspect of municipal government in Norwich, and that's our good right, but I'm absolutely sure we would agree that our City Hall is a gem, and when it's dressed up for the winter holidays, surrounded by throngs of happy faces and singers of seasonal songs, it's magic and that's what we had Friday. If you haven't yet had the chance to stop by City Hall after dark, you really should as there are no words to capture how lovely it looks this time of year.  

And you should also put an evening visit to Chelsea Parade on your itinerary because work crews, as they always do, finished constructing the Red Rose of New England prior to Saturday's Winterfest Parade. I made it a point to grab some photos of it in all of its illuminated glory on my way back from City Hall Friday evening.

The great thing about celebrations like those we had last week is that they are very much community events in every sense of the word. People just like the ones who live on your street and on my block join together months and more in advance to work on the hundreds and thousands of individual threads that when woven together, create the colorful and memorable tapestries we'll tell our children and grandchildren about.  

Memories are moments such as these and we are fortunate to have so many selfless and kindhearted friends and neighbors willing to both make and to be the difference. Whether you counted down the seconds at City Hall, one of the nearly five hundred runners in Saturday's Road Race or part of the sidewalk cheerleading crew later for the parade, or helped to make it all possible, thank you! You’re why Norwich is a great place to live.
-bill kenny