Things Are Better this December

 


      This week I pulled out my Christmas CDs and put one disc in the CD player. I kept the rest out so I could slowly add one disc every week until my CD player has all Christmas music in it. I burned a pine scented candle. C and I made a list of people to whom we hope to send Christmas cards. We bought some ingredients so I can do holiday baking. We talked about a few people we'd like to give some treats to. I've been cheerful.

    Anyone who has read this column for a few years knows that this is NOT normal behaviour for me. I have routinely aired my dislike for the month of December, the commercialization of Christmas and the wish that we could skip to New Year's many times.

   Things are better this December. When you compare them to past  Decembers it's not much of a contest. Most Decembers found me working a lot, missing all the holiday fun, listening to endless cheerful holiday music and dealing with stressed out, angry customers. In 2018 I was three weeks away from my first and hopefully last major surgery. Last year I was unemployed. I had a potential job, but was really nervous that I might not get it. (I did.)

   This year, I have a job that I love. I have great coworkers. When I worked on Wednesday the Christmas music was blended in with non holiday tunes. I heard "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." I've never heard that Christmas song played on a store's Musak before. How bad can things be?

   At this point some of you are wondering what planet I'm living on. The pandemic is raging. Things are shut down. People are out of work. A group of people are insisting that the recent election was fraudulent and a government official may have suggested that the President of the United States suspend the Constitution and declare marital law. This is no time to be happy.

   This is true. I plan to be happy anyway. I can do what has been suggested by reputable medical experts to keep myself and C safe. I voted which is my civic duty and my vote was a legal one. Anything else is out of my control right now so I'm going to do happy constructive things this December. I've got the Light the World calendar up in my kitchen to give me suggestions of spiritually strengthening things I can do. I've knitted a scarf for a friend and will start another scarf today.

   There's been enough darkness and despair this year. 

   The only sad part about this December is that I still miss my sweet cat, Colby. We have Scamp who is doing all right. We are blessed and fortunate. Everyone we care about is all right. The ones who have been sick have recovered. Two of my stepdaughters have gone back to school and are doing well. The ones we care about are safe. Not everyone is so lucky.

   We are going to listen to Christmas music. Put up a tree. Send a few cards. Bake some treats. Get Scamp a nice present and be grateful and happy. 


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