Author: Mother

How was your Christmas holiday?  Have you finished the turkey yet?  As someone with enough turkey for one more salad/round of sandwiches, I have realised that my appetite for the bird has definitely outlasted my appetite for cards and decorations.  I have just received and opened 2 more cards and am left to ponder, yet again, why we put ourselves through the misery and guilt of writing, sending and receiving Christmas cards.  If we REALLY want to keep in touch with folk, shouldn’t we just do that?  Does the Christmas card and “catch all” letter, disguise our social neglect of those to whom we were once close?  It’s a thought, isn’t it?

Thank goodness that tomorrow is Bank Holiday Monday.  It will be the perfect time to take down the decorations and trees, and ensure that all family members are around to put them away neatly.  Fabulous!

So, 2012 is here whether we are ready for it, or not.  Did you make any resolutions?  Have you broken them as yet?  Don’t worry, you still have time to make some more!  Having looked back through my diary and reflected on 2011, I am ready for an exciting and positive 2012. 

I hope that, as I intend to do, you will spend 2012 living rather than existing; that you will be unashamedly yourself and not be bullied or cowed into fitting into someone else’s definition of who or what you should be.  Live and love well.  Keep the faith and grow in wisdom and understanding every day.  So that on January 1^st, 2013 – come what may – you will know that you could not have tried harder.  Happy 2012 and take care.  

Experience shows that moving house provides opportunities to review, renew and eschew.  It uncovers all the clutter of one’s life and, it we can bear it, gives an opportunity for reassessment and restructuring of our interior life too.  Such has been the case for us, and the looming of Christmas further accentuates the good, the bad and the ugly.

The whole Christmas matter was recently brought into sharp focus by the revelations of a new friend.  She has a beautifully carved Continental crib scene and Playmobil version, which she prefers.  The Playmobil crib scene has played its significant role in the festive season, for many years.  During one Christmas, Baby Jesus was lost down the back of a radiator!  I know not for how long, but he was subsequently retrieved and returned to his rightful place.

As I approach the mountain of unwritten Christmas cards, with dread, and relish the Aldi advertisements, which exactly echo my Scrooge-like desire to merrily wrap and give pieces of tinsel.  (My wood-burning  stove fund is firmly in focus.)  A corner of my mind ponders whether Baby Jesus is lost down the back of a radiator or tucked securely in his crib.

Two hours after I join the crowds of harassed, irritable consumers and shops polluting the atmosphere with insincere, tinny muzak; I tell myself, “Never again,” again.  Retreating to my laptop and a cosy corner at home, I encounter the revelation that is e-Christmas shopping.  Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!

Simultaneously shopping and munching mince pies, I squash my tinsel-wrapping idea and browse at will.  Rapid success and then, my eyes are drawn to yet another something that rushes helter-skelter onto my “simply shouldn’t be done!” list.  The “light-up giant Santa carrying Baby Jesus”, no matter how or where one puts it, is vulgar.  It should only be purchased or displayed by guests who ate that wedding cake.  (They ate a life-sized replica of the bride.)  Google; you will be amazed – and probably traumatised!

As you celebrate – however you celebrate – give yourself time to appreciate both faces of Christmas.  May your real gift, this year, be incomparable peace and a moment to appreciate your immeasurable worth.

Happy Christmas.

Friendship and fellowship are as vital as the air we breathe; folk are not designed to exist in complete isolation.  That the craving to connect and belong is a soul-deep yearning, is amply demonstrated by the popularity of  facilitators ranging from dating agencies, advertisements and venues to Facebook, Friends Reunited and Twitter, via fora (forums), interest groups, clubs and societies.  Still, friendship and fellowship are multi-faceted commodities.

How empowering to engage in an emotionally healthy relationship, rich in interest, trust and vitality.  How wonderful and yet, how rare.

Thoughtfulness, selflessness and kindness are not as common as petals, nor so easily acquired or developed.  Still, they are at the heart of successful interaction.  Know yourself and prepare yourself.  Develop your character through honest endeavour – it’s never too late to practise ethics – and be the inner life that you would like to meet.  When your inner healthiness attracts others, be careful.  The world is full of leeches and a healthy person can only service a few!  Instead, learn to recognise other healthy characters and proceed with caution.

Remember, all that glisters is not gold, and networking is neither fellowship nor friendship.

Invest your time, talent and effort wisely and well; then, enjoy the fruits of your labour.  But, don’t sit back and neglect your achievement.  Relationships are living, breathing, unique entities requiring maintenance.  Review and reflect regularly.  Check for signs of growth, health and vitality.  Crucially, know when fellowship and friendship are dead and dying.  Know, accept, bury, grieve – and move on.  Know, grow and go.