Holiday Madness

The holidays are always meant to be a time filled with fun festivities,joy, laughter, lots of good eats, and family gatherings. My own childhood memory is of eating really good food and being around family. Receiving presents was not part of our tradition growing up and looking back at it now I realize how simple and wonderful that was. Now as I look around I see my friends and family members stressing out to the point of madness over the holiday craziness and pressure to buy for everyone even down to the dog. The pressure all seems to built as soon as Halloween ends ushering in the season of Christmas carols way too soon on the radio, a reminder to get ready to shop till we bust or until our credit cards screams denied at the check out counter.

Why do we set ourselves up for such stress? Would our neighbors really be upset if they didn't receive a Christmas card from you? How about Aunt Sally? Would she care if she didn't receive a gift but receive a phone call instead wishing her all the best? What about our spouses? Would they feel slighted if you decided to forgo gifts this year? The unfortunate answer is yes, most would care and feel some sort of resentment. Christmas is no longer a holiday meant to celebrate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ, how many people actually give thought to that during this holiday season? Instead it has become a season of the Black Friday rush and Cyber Mondays deals.

I miss the days when the holidays just meant getting together with friends and family, having a few drinks, eating good food, and being merry. A time when the sound of laughter filled the house as kids squeal with pure delight over that toy car, train set or that Barbie doll, simple toys. Instead we are greeted with unsure faces as we hope that our children will like the three hundred and fifty dollar game we bought them. Then December 26th comes along and glee turns to concern as we now wonder how the hell we're going to pay that credit card bill.

So this year I've opted out of receiving gifts for myself and luckily my husband is in agreement. My children will laugh and be merry as they open their package of joy which will probably last hopefully for a few days until the novelty wears off. Mom and dad will rejoice in the fact that we can pay the mortgage on the house next month, put food on the table, pay the car note, and pay our cable bill so we can look at the news to see how many millions of dollars was spent this year in holiday giving.

I love Christmas but lets love and give the best of ourselves to our friends and family. That's the best gift we can give. Merry Christmas!

A Simple Life

I’ve often heard of the legend of a simple life, it’s a tale of life long ago before the invention of computers, the internet, big corporations, and the sixty hour work week.  For many it may sound like an urban myth, you hear people talking about it like tales of old but never quite experiencing it firsthand.   The stories are fascinating to listen too yet difficult to comprehend and wrap around a cerebral cortex that's already jammed with superficial trappings that has bonded the mind to the material world.  But when you hear the stories enough times, you begin to feel as if you’ve lived it some long time ago perhaps in another life and a small part of you begins to wonder what it looks like, smells like, and feels like.

This elusive simple life is attainable yet manages to slip through our fingers like water from a faucet.   Many have come to realize that the more wealth we accumulate the more we hoard and the more things we want.  The bigger house, the Mercedes Benz, expensive vacations, designer clothing and the list goes on.  Consequently, as the price tag gets bigger so does the need to work harder and earn more to maintain this opulent lifestyle which in the end takes us further away from any semblance of a balanced life.  In the end, the lure of the simple life seems like a far-fetched idea, unattainable.  Yet the idea of a simple life still remains within our reach if we focus our energies in the right direction.


Our recent economic collapse was an indication of the level of greed that had ensnared our society for so many years.  When Wall Street and the housing sector failed people lost millions and thousands were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs to keep them warm.  Gone were their mansion style homes, multitude of cars, vacations now became a staycation and shopping at Wal-Mart didn’t seem like such a bad idea.  The failed economy was a reminder that we as a society needed a strong dose of reality to push us back to a time when living was much simpler and didn’t entail working yourself to a literal death.  It was a reminder that life could still be sweet without all the stuff, titles and money.


At the end of the day when the money and status are gone all that’s left is yourself, maybe your family, and the God you pray to at night that is if you believe in such things.   Additionally, the friends who we thought were friends can be found running in the other direction for the next host they can leach themselves onto.  Wealth is a great thing to have but don’t be defined by it.  Live well and be happy.

Live Fully

Live Fully

Life is full of waiting.  We find ourselves waiting for the perfect job, the perfect mate, the perfect circumstances to make changes, waiting for the perfect time to initiate action.  We wait in hope that life will throw us a lifeline that will take us in the direction we wish our lives to go.  Before long, we have waited an eternity and old age and death begins to knock loudly on the doors, not begging to be let in but barging its way in swiftly and without care.  This past year has taught me so much about life, love, and the need to live life in its full capacity without waiting for the dominoes to line up in a straight line.  The waiting we do for life to miraculously fix itself is our shameless  way of taking the easy way out, a way to slice the responsibility away from our hands, a way to play the victim.  The journey of life was not meant to be put on hold until something better comes along; it was meant for each moment whether good or bad to bloom with full ripeness like a fruit bearing on a tree.  It was meant to be lived with full awareness and accountability, we hold the key that can potentially unlock the door to our happiness. 

As time goes by in my life which just seems to be flying by like the wind I’m beginning to understand that life is a living and moving tapestry with vibrant colors some of which will go outside the lines wanting to escape the imprisonment of those boundaries to experience its own fate and I’m okay with that.  Okay with the fact that my life won’t always travel the straight and narrow, that I will have moments of weakness but ever present to experience each fully.  I love life, I love me, and I love all the experiences that life throws my way, even the ones that have brought me to tears.  These are the ones I remember the most because I was open fully to the magic of feeling.   I've come to accept the fact that people will come and go in my life, they may have been sent to be my angel or guru for a moment for a lesson to be learned and I fully embrace this point. 

I've learned that attachment to anyone or anything holds danger as I find it difficult to let go and move on,  instead  I choose to forgive the past and live in the present.  So my advice, don’t wait for life to show you the way because that train might never come or even scarier you might have missed it.  Have the courage to break cycles to a better life, to speak the truth and to stand up for you.   Waiting is not an option.  What will you say to the future you when you’ve waited for life to find its way to you and you find yourself in the same place?  What will you do when time is no longer on your side?  Live fully, to hell with always choosing what’s safe.  Open up to a robust plate of kick ass living, you only get one shot.  Ready, set, live!