A SIMPLE LIFE AROUND THE HOLIDAYS

A SIMPLE LIFE

A couple of weeks ago, the Sunday Edition of the Denver Post ran a story – “A Simple Life” about a man who lives in a cave near Moab.  He relies on discards, Dumpsters for food and clothes, never uses money and is very happy with his simple life.

I get it.  The older I become, the more I crave simplicity and the peacefulness that accompanies it.  When I turned forty, I decided to simplify the holidays by eliminating a number of chores, traditions and choices that were stressful and time eaters.   When each holiday season rolled around, I’d let something else go and each year my enjoyment of the holidays increased and our family celebrations grew richer and more meaningful.  The first year, I stopped baking 13 dozen cookies for the neighborhood cookie exchange; not only did I free up my Sat. afternoon, I  felt so much better without the load of butter and sugar in my system.  Next, I stopped sending out Christmas cards; instead I sat down in February and wrote notes to friends and loved-ones around Valentine ’s Day.  I took my time and the people who received them enjoyed leisurely reading them after the Holiday rush.  Eventually, my husband took over; he writes a newsletter and sends it out ‘whenever’ and I enjoy reading his take on the past year.

 I stopped wrapping presents, and instead, drop them in the same gift bags that I reuse every year.  I stopped killing trees and hanging ornaments on them.  Now, I arrange my favorite ornaments in beautiful glass bowls which I set around the house.  I never enter a store or a parking lot crowded with Christmas shoppers or the Post Office during lunch hour.  I never give presents that may have to be returned and my loved ones know that if I can’t eat it, drink it or it requires dusting: I don’t need it.  Instead, they bless me with experiences like tickets to a show or a museum.

Last year, I received a phone call from a friend who lives in New Jersey.  She was in tears; exhausted, stressed, and overwhelmed with holiday chores.  Her ‘to do’ list was a mile long and because of family expectations, she wouldn’t make changes to ease up for fear of letting them down.  Or even worse, put up with the resistance that would be heaped upon her as she rewrote the rule book of what she was supposed to do each and every holiday season.

Instead, she chose to fall to pieces.

 Contrast this with a story I heard about another family.  Every Christmas the parents gave each child a new pair of pajamas which they wore and a board game which they played while drinking cocoa on Christmas...  Wow!!!!  Simple, beautiful and fun.   This, in my opinion, is how the holidays in particular and life in general should be celebrated.

Happy, peaceful Holidays.