Ripped From The Archives: Surviving The Holidays

Creatavita's annual holiday survival guide.  

First published way back in 2013.  

Be well my friends!

So, this won't be a news flash to any of you, but while you weren't looking, the holiday season officially arrived. Oh boy. That annual mix of joy, dread and exhaustion. The expectations are high for all of us – peace on earth, good will to men and the presents better be perfect. Every last one of them. Well, guess what darlings. I am here to throw out this radical idea - you do not have to do everything this holiday season. You do not have to buy every gift, attend every party, and keep every tradition ever known to every generation of your family or your neighborhood. Yes, I am here to say - choose the traditions that matter the most to you.

Here's my personal example. Christmas cards. Who doesn't love Christmas cards? Me too. But at some point the act of writing the annual letter or choosing the best card for each of the 179 people on our list, adding one sincere sentence to every letter or card, addressing the envelopes, and even putting on the stamps tipped from being a pleasure-filled activity to drudgery. Friends, when the act of wishing someone Merry Christmas feels like drudgery, you know you've got a problem.

So I stopped. I didn't send any Christmas cards one year. The world didn't come crashing down and there were still presents for me under the tree. So I didn't send any the next year either. That might have been the year when I sat in my office one hot August afternoon and wrote a lovely letter in place of Christmas cards. Another brilliant idea born. And although I've been known to skip a year here and there, that's what I do now - I choose another time of the year and send out a greeting. Some years a letter, some years one of those snappy photo cards I create online. Some years a Valentine, some years a Spring greeting. You know what? People seem to love receiving a truly joy-filled greeting at another time of the year. I love sending the greeting at another time of the year, when I'm not stressed to the max with holiday musts, and when I know there's a good chance my letter is the only personally-addressed envelope showing up in mailboxes around the world. And in all of the years that I've bucked tradition, I've had three people say to me “hey, where's my Christmas card?” Or “Haven't heard from you in a while. Are you still alive?” Three.

I have an assignment for you.  The good news is there is no test.  I want you to contemplate the holiday traditions that have true meaning for you. Keep those. Then I want you to consider the ones that feel like drudgery. See if you can get rid of one or two of those. Then I want you to seek out some serenity. Because.

Note:  The photos in this post come from a holiday trip I took in 2008 to Bulgaria.  The final one is of Bulgarian Mummers.  Yes, there are Mummers in Bulgaria.

Grateful Every Day

Hello my dear Creataviters,

Let's make the gratitude last all year.

Photo Friday Number 27

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough. 

Oprah Winfrey

Photos, clockwise starting at the top left: Locally-grown produce in the Dane County Farmer's Market, Madison, Wisconsin; Handmade pots drying in the sun in Pottery Square, Bhaktapur, Nepal; Locally-grown tea in the Centenary Farmer's Market of Thimphu, Bhutan; Powdered colors and stamps at Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal.

My Favorite Things: My Public Library

Libraries.

I LOVE libraries. Here's the first library I remember loving. The Ripon Public Library in Ripon, Wisconsin. Yes, it was a Carnegie Library.

(If the photo isn't appearing, go here.)

I would get lost in that library for hours. Once, when I was 7 or 8, I heard the librarian answer the phone, and then heard her say, "No, she's not here anymore". I knew it was my mom, I knew I was missing dinner (or doing the dishes) and I stayed anyway. It was one of the best hideaways in Ripon at the time, and there were many.

The lower left window? That's where the young adult fiction lived, along with my favorite book at the time, The Black Opal by Dorothy Maywood Brown. That book took me so far away from that small town. I loved that book.

The designation as the first public library in the English-speaking world is claimed by Chetham's Library in Manchester, England. It was, and still is, predominantly a reference library, which means you won't find Lisa Scottoline's most recent books there.

The first library in the US - The Library Company was founded in Philadelphia in 1731, by Benjamin Franklin, of course. The first FREE library in the United States was founded over a century later, in 1833 in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

I'm getting all library-geeky on you. If you're as geeky as I am, here's a nice online exhibition about the history of libraries in the US, courtesy of the Digital Public Library of America.

Here are some of the ways I use my current public library (Ludington Library, which you can see in the photo below):

- ordering scripts and musical scores through the Interlibrary Loan service.
- borrowing books, recordings and videos through TWO digital apps.
- borrowing cake pans. Yes. My library has cake pans.
- meeting my Spanish tutor at the Porch, a zippy, informal meeting space at Ludington.
- wandering into the back of the library and losing myself in writing or reading.

I'm not a person who complains about paying taxes, and my love of public libraries is a part of that. Because most public libraries in the US are funded, at least in part, by local taxes, they are a fine example of all of us contributing to create a resource that is of immense value to the entire community. A public library welcomes everyone - rich, poor, young, old, doesn't matter. We all benefit. Just think about how much money you can personally save if you use your public library.

If you don't have a library card, the most creative task you can do today is to get one. Worlds you never imagined will open up to you through your public library. Perhaps that card will become one of your favorite things, just like it is for me.

Another invaluable taxpayer-funded space,
the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge

Photo Friday Number 26

Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.

from For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

Photo: Vietnam Veteran visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels, Cu Chi, Vietnam

Well

I didn't expect to be gone this long. From Creatavita, that is.

Back at the beginning of September, I gave myself permission to take an entire month off. Beloved and I were going on a big adventure (which you will hear about) and I didn't want any responsibilities in the way. I wanted to be, as we say, fully present to the adventure. My plan was to return on October 1, rested, rejuvenated and full of creativity.

Yeah, well.

That didn't happen, did it? I've been gone for almost two months. You should have experienced the carnival in my head when I realized I had really lost my blogging habit.

Voice #1 - Screaming Dominatrix Voice: "What is wrong with you? You HAVE TO GET BACK IN THE HABIT. People are waiting to hear from you!"

Voice #2 - Snotty Adolescent Voice: "Well, if they're waiting for me, why haven't they reached out to me and told me they miss me? After all, it's 2018. They have any number of ways to find me. I don't think they really care."

Voice #3 - Calm, Peaced-Out Traveler Voice: "Hey, it's okay. Taking a break is a good idea. You'll get to it when you're ready."

Voice #4 - Organized, Wannabe CEO: "You are not sticking to the Editorial Calendar. You have messed up the entire year. What are we going to do?"

Voice #5 - Indignant Social Butterfly: "You can't just say you were too busy. That's sooo lame."

Anybody else have that many voices in their heads?

Only one thing was nurtured during this time - my addiction to perfectionism. When I let that first deadline pass, I the door to perfectionism opened. Next thing I knew, nothing was good enough. Then the carnival of voices walked right through that door...and yuck. I was back in the throes of not being perfect, which leads to not feeling good enough, which leads to inaction. It's an ugly path.

So, I'm done with that. At least this time. I think. We'll see.

I have been spending lots of brain cells reflecting on my relationship with social media. I really, really, REALLY want to spend less time on Facebook and Instagram. The time I spend out there is no longer time well spent. Also, it makes me crazy that Facebook has so much dominion over our lives. So, get ready for that. And thanks for waiting!

To keep you intrigued, here's one photo from the country that measures Gross National Happiness, Bhutan:

Buddhist Monk on a Himalayan mountain trail