Well, its Christmas Eve. Its alway tough for me to get into it here in Southern California since we left Illinois and the cold weather and snow that seems to be stereotypical of the holiday thanks to Currier and Ives. Plus, as I get older, the days leading up seem to zoom by. Got home at almost 5 this morning from work. A couple of us work on setting up for Christmas Eve service which start at 3:00 and repeat 7 times through 1am. Go back tonight at 10, wait around till services end, strike the stage and then set up for the regular Sunday service which of course, is Christmas Day and get home at about 5am again. Fortunately, although they're not all recognized holidays, we tend to celebrate Christmas every day of the year with all the things we do for each other. We can't afford the big deluge of gifts during a small window of time in December which, of course, brings out the guilt in me of what I haven't accomplished in my life, so we try to hold that spirit the other 11 months of the year. As I'm writing this, it occurs to me that we may have a holiday for the birth of Christ in December, some of us are able to celebrate it year 'round. Not me necessarily, but so many others I know and even in this group. I've met a few people in my life that give great gifts (material AND spiritual) no matter what day of the year it is and not just wish us "Happy Holidays" for a few short days to make up for their bad behavior the other 360 days of the year. It reminds me of working at a radio station in Southern Illinois and the station had a food drive during the Christmas season. Everyone got excited about collecting and packing food for needy people and one day I asked, "Do these people ever get hungry during July?" We get caught up in the season and it quickly passes after the first of the year and we go into our little orbit of lives and let the giving spirit fade into distant memories. Till Thanksgiving of the next year, of course when all the sale ads kill the newpaper carrier on the day after (use to be a paper boy, too...LOL). Unfortunately, Christmas has somewhat lost its celebration for me. People at work make themselves incredible tense trying to make the services perfect and they take out their frustration out on others trying to live up to an imaginary standard which is why my wife a book entitled, "God did not send his son to cause me stress (not a plug, not a plug)." She realized one day that we don't celebrate the birth of Christ so we can run around malls, spend too many hours baking cookies because we're "expected" to and giving ourselve artificial deadlines for gift buying which causes tension and exasperation and all that sighing from people when they say how much they still have to do. My wife realized she could put up decorations when she found time, bake when the mood struck and watch her wonderful husband (lovingly) hang the lights on the house. If certain tasks got done, they got done. If they didn't, well, maybe next year.
So, as I open up my annual gift of slippers tommorrow (hey, I LIKE slippers), I'll remember all the friends I've made here and the intangible gifts and support they've given me. Despite the frustrations of trying to help people and recalling the phrase, "No good deed goes unpunished," I still attempt to give of myself and I've found its returned to me 100 fold and we're looking forward to year of acceleration where the days go by even faster because we're enjoying them so much.
I know what you mean about simplicity. I know our lives are going to get much more complicated in the future with a women's writer's conference, publishing, etc., but if I change the way I think and my mental attitude, I think I can make my life simpler by thinking ahead. I'm sure if I enjoy what I do, it will also seem simpler because I'm enjoying it and those days of naked renewal will help refresh us whether its at our resort, which I love, or just a hotel room.
Of course I enjoy visiting my friends in other towns and seeing the wonders of nature. The North Georgia mountains are never more than two hours away and there are miles of hiking trails. I have barely scratched the surface of things to see and do there. I am a mere six hours drive from a palm-lined Georgia beach where the solitude frequently makes skinnydipping possible.
However, I do enjoy longer road trips, seeing the sights along the way. I have been to the desert Southwest, parts of the Rockies, hiked along the shore of Lake Superior and explored just a little bit of the California coast. I am glad to have done all that.
I don't like plane travel. It is what I have to do to reach the more distant places in a short period of time. It is also a great expense for me and it has been several years since I flew somewhere on vacation. I haven't had a job in ten years that offered me vacation days, so every day on the road is a day that I could be making much-needed money. I hope that in a year or so, that I won't be living from paycheck to paycheck and that there will be sufficient money for a week out of town.
The trip to Virginia was very difficult for me, but I managed somehow. I am sure that the Lord brought a lot together at the last minute to make it possible.
I have friends who take lengthy expensive luxury trips nearly every year. I don't aspire to that extreme, but simple visits to see friends or go camping are within my reach. I didn't mean to imply that I don't do that.
Because of my heavy travel schedule while I was working and my sister finally saying to all, "This is silly; let's stop it.", we gave up on Christmas traditions a long time ago. Didn't do much for it in Singapore at all, although the commercialism of Christmas has showed up there quite strongly over the years (our first time there in 1977 and last for 4 1/2 years ending 1994). In Baton Rouge, we put up a huge (artificial) tree for the benefit of the international students that we hosted and had parties for. Here, we only put up that same huge tree one time when our host daughter came for Christmas.
One member of the church was asking me about our traditions. I told her that we had none and didn't do that.
Wife complains at times that we don't go anywhere; so, I took her to Bath County for our 40th anniversary. Gotta do little trips like that at least once/year to keep her happy. Otherwise, I'm happy going about my naked gardening on my mini farm here. Can't see flying around the country and world like I used to do when working. Love my yearly trips to master gardener college in Blacksburg. Wish there was a group of nudists over that way or on the way. Be nice if there was a group here, like we had in NJ. WTP is too far away, as is Avalon.
Maybe you'll get to go to WTP this summer when the group gets together there. If you are homesick, we'll arrange some gardening time for you there! Maybe we'll bring a large planter and some dirt and seeds.
Hey, I got a GREAT IDEA!
You can set up a booth at AANR for naked gardeners. I'm sure there will be others there that will enjoy it! "Ticks, tips, and how to keep off ticks"
