The moon is in the WIP! It's just very very hard to see. We have brisk 23° with 92% humidity, fair skies and calm winds today. Now I must decide if I am to use this day off as my
LAST SHOPPING DAY!!!
Well, it's the last opportunity for me. And I'm pretty sure it ain't gonna happen this year. I have about given up on the whole notion of "Christmas" shopping. Since I have accepted that, most of the stress has lifted. The only stress left is to deal with the potential disappointment in those with whom I have traditionally given gifts. Change is difficult. We find comfort in the traditional things we come to look forward to and rely on. I know all of the stress I feel is ME. No one around me is the cause. It's all me. I don't have the energy any more for what commercialism has done to my way of thinking about the holidays. Walking around a couple of the shopping "hotspots" I saw so many faces pinched with stress. Where were the smiling faces of those truly enjoying the holidays? Some very wise people have been trying to teach me to think 'homemade' for the giving season. That notion is trying to sink in. Why such an excellent notion is so hard to adapt to is beyond me. I guess it takes a long time to break a lifelong way of thinking, but I'm slowly getting there. I can already feel the subtle easing of the stress and a hint of the long absent joy trying to return inside me. Maybe in a couple of more years I'll finally get there. My wish for you today, may you never lose your joy of the seasons. If, by some chance, you find your joy missing, I really think it's still there. Inside you. Waiting to be found again.
