Declarations for the Holidays

 

I'm writing this at the risk of sounding like Grinch.  But this year, I declare 2025 holiday season as mine.  And accordingly, I have written a list of rules for me to live by.

1.  I will not participate in a 'family' event that is bound to bring only displeasure, hurt, tension and stress.

Traveling Well

 

As I type this I am preparing for vacation.  Writing has pretty much taken a backseat to the planning of what to pack, what will be wanted/needed, what might be best to take with us in order to save a bit of money, what is too much to pack.  The tendency is to try to pack for every eventuality.  

The reality is that I can pack every single thing I think I might need (also known as overpacking) but I will be very irritable upon arrival and equally irritable when we pack up to leave.  It's humping all that luggage and stuff about, you see, that really spoils the whole thing.  

Reclaiming Innocence

What I'm sharing today is stuff of a sensitive nature.  If like me you have learned things you'd sooner not have known, then please know that you are not alone.

When I was a child, I was exposed to things a child shouldn't have heard much less have seen.  It removed an innocence that I wasn't prepared to lose, at a very early age.  This exposure happened many times over the next several years.  

I'll Have Fun

 

I'm not very good at having fun.  I am much more prone to think of things that might be fun and then clamp the door shut, lock it tight and force myself to do something 'productive'.   Add to that my Martha complex of being certain that unless I do the necessary jobs about my home, no one else shall (and indeed there is no one else going to do them!).  You can see how I bump hard on the ground the moment I think I'm going to take a day off or a bit of time to have 'fun'.  

Child's Play

                                                               Artist: Joe Cartwright

I've been going back in time these days. Aka time travel which is rather nice as I can travel to past or future. It feels a lot like the Wonka factory elevator!  I've been looking at the ways in which I played as a child.  Part of that exploration is due to the Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way, which I'm currently making my way through.  She'd asked the question a few weeks ago about childhood which led to the question of how we played.

Lovely Day!

 

I don't have a single photo from our day...I have a brand-new camera, and I'll confess, aside from charging and putting in the batteries and SD card, the camera has gone back to the box.  I generally save my Christmas gifts, no matter how early they are given, for Christmas.  My phone makes the most awful photos, so I don't use for general photography as a rule.  Off subject all this talk of cameras, except that I wish I'd had the new camera with me today.   

I don't know that I've mentioned it overmuch, but John's anxiety has increased to the point that he is very reluctant to leave home unless we are solidly in the middle of the rut we typically travel, which means we go to church and Katie's and pretty much nowhere else these days.  I've talked to him about his anxiety and how it's affecting two of us and not just himself, but he steadily refuses to take medication.  I have urged him to try the Vitamin B supplement our former doctor put me on when I was suffering with so much anxiety and panic attacks and I've noticed he's been taking it routinely this week, but will he do it next week?  There's the real question.  I sort of nagged him gently for the past week and we got out of the house.

November

I've just been making out my list of goals for this month (it's November 1 as I write this) and while I say I am not going to be sharing those goals, I did think I'd share some of my favorite things for November.  I am not mentioning Thanksgiving on purpose.  It is a favorite, but I feel it is a stand-alone for November, sort of the gateway into the whole holiday season, so you won't find me mentioning it here.  I'm reserving those pleasures.

Here's what I'm going to be doing to make November a cozy and memorable month...

Dream Editor

 

                                             "Lucid" from the Dreamborn series by Kyraith

Several years ago (oh so many!) my daughter Amie taught me a lesson...And it's one that I keep repeating to myself now and then, just because I need constant reminding.

We were waiting on the school bus.  Amie was 16 or 17 at the time.  "What would you do if..."  I think this particular morning the subject was "you were to win the lottery."  Amie was lavish in her dreams.  She treated herself and family to many needs and a great deal many more wants.  She traveled and ventured and did oh so many things.  Then it was my turn.

Fairy Tale Life

I was doing some rather mundane household chore the other day when I suddenly thought, "I'd kind of like a fairy Godmother..." 

Mama bought a set of books for us children when we were far too young to read.  She ordered some classics and among the set was a book of fairytales.  Grimms Fairytales as it happens and let me assure you that the authors' name was a fit description for the tales told therein.

And Then...I Remember What I Know

 

Things were going so well.  I've been riding on the wave of my newfound confidence and joy.  I've made a good start on losing weight.  I am adding good things back into my life.  I have been filled with a sense of abundance instead of the fear and worry I tend to lean on when it comes to finances.  I felt I was writing better.  I was enjoying my (admittedly feeble) artistic attempts.

And then it started.    

A Room of My Own

 

Tuesday:  John is gone today.  As in all day today and it would truly be a shame to do no writing at all.  I spent the morning out shopping, the fun sort, where I wandered Hobby Lobby and Goodwill and TJ Maxx...but now that I'm home, and I still have a whole afternoon alone...Writing and putting my feet up is what appeals most.

The following will likely be written as a random post, but the sections are somewhat connected.