For my grandson: on a special day

Embrace criticism, whether from the wise or from fools. No one ever regrets raising the bar, ever, ever, ever. Scare yourself.

Never have words been uttered that didn't have meaning to those who’ve heard them.

This in no way means or implies what you heard was true! Maybe you heard those words to test your confidence, to challenge your resolve, or to help you rethink earlier choices… only you know. 

But, if you did not hear the words, you would never know. Remember Thoughts become Things... choose the good ones!

 

Imagine That

If you can imagine it, you can have it. This is the name of the game. This is the lesson to learn. It couldn't be any easier. Reality is not what your eyes show your mind, but what your thoughts create for your eyes to see. You are not limited by logic, the past, or the world around you. You are not of the world around you, it is of you.

You came first. Charm, gifts, and chance are the consequences of understanding that if you can imagine it you can have it. The reward of success is the inevitable byproduct of dreaming and acting in spite of appearances.

You are ever so close. Simply stay the course. It won't be very much longer.

What is Twixmas?

Twixmas is the term used to describe the days between Christmas and New Year (27th-30th December), when–work and family commitments depending–you can take some much-needed downtime in theory. Most of us lose our sense of what happens in this downtime. Holidays are magical times, but something conditioned us to follow certain routines and during this period between Christmas and New Year, changes to our norms can throw us out of whack. During the pandemic, many of us became used to working from home and now are adjusting to being back at work. We do not find any change easy.

For most of our lives, there are certain things in our lives and daily routine, like the normal working week, which mark the passage of time. We set our alarms each morning, and lunch breaks and finishing times define our work days–there are very clear divisions of how time is broken up.

For those of us who have retired, we have learned to adjust to a new normal, but for those still working, Christmas and the festive period, all those usual markers that exist to give us a sense of security are removed. You can do what you want to do as there are no constraints or demands on your time.

So, the days between Christmas and New Year’s are a strange vortex where even time itself seems to operate at a different pace.

These days may seem to all meld into one, where no memory can survive of what exactly you did or when you did it. A lot of (lucky) people have these few days off, and with all that spare time in a house full of people, things get a little surreal. However, there are some things that always happen at this time of year that make it hauntingly familiar every time it rolls around.

You have over the year found time to binge-watch your favourite series on Netflix, Disney, or Apple. But at Christmas, you got a box set for Christmas, and now you think you have to find time to watch it. Throughout the rest of the year, you might squeeze one episode, maybe two in a night, but you’ve now been awake for 39 hours straight, and you can’t tell fiction from reality anymore.

Between Christmas and New Year's, the Christmas turkey is being used. For these next few days, it’s turkey for every meal, because there are 27bs of it still to use in the fridge, and we can’t have that going to waste. Who knew that you could make so many recipes out of turkey? Sandwiches, soup, pie, curry, fricassee, nachos, cereal, pancakes, bread... the list is seemingly endless, just like the supply of turkey.

As you pile in that fifth flake from the selection box, you think that you’re invincible and that 2022 was the year and you owned it. You decide that you’re going to make all those New Year’s resolutions that you’ll never be able to keep. Giving up sugar and alcohol for the entire year and going to the gym three times a day is ambitious, sure, but we’re confident we can pull it off. We won’t start today though, sure there’s no point...

In amongst your swag pile will be at least one voucher for either a shopping centre or an one4all card, and now the decision-making process begins. Should you get yourself that jacket that you’ve had your eye on, or is the voucher better spent on grocery shopping to ensure that you can eat for most of the days in January? Tough call...

While some sweet tins are better than others, there are always at least a few tins of Roses, Quality Street and probably a box of After Eights lying around somewhere after Christmas Day. However, the days have passed and there have been a ridiculous number of people in and out of the house getting cups of tea with a few chocolates on the side, and now as you reach in to grab yourself a sweet all that’s left are empty wrappers that were thrown back into the box and maybe one of those that have the Brazil nut in it.

It won’t be long before the sales actually start on Christmas Day itself, but all the shops have now cleared out their stockrooms of the stuff that they couldn’t shift for love or money during the year and the crap they had left over from 2019, and people have gone into a state of bizarre hysteria to get their hands on some of it.

All we know is that Christmas Day was two days ago, and New Year’s Day is taking place at some stage in the future. The days in between are of no consequence. Is today a Saturday? Really? We could have sworn it was Wednesday. The reality is that it is Tuesday. Who knew>

Boxing Day

When I was growing up, Boxing Day was a day to visit with friends in town. My parents would take us to their friend’s place and while they visited, we would play with the friends’ children, or listen to the adults. It was a relaxed day as I remember it.

When my wife and I married, the Boxing Day tradition continued, as it was part of her family’s tradition as well. Her family was on the mainland, and she had many aunts, uncles, Great Aunts, and Great Uncles and Grandparents to visit. The day was fun, but stressful. We would start out about 11:00 AM to make the first visit by noon in Vancouver. We had a route all planned and most years it went without a hitch. As most newly married couples did, we spent one year with my wife’s family and the next year with mine. My family was on Vancouver Island, so we spent Xmas with my family, returned to Vancouver on Boxing Day and made the rounds to my wife’s family.

Every place you visited had way too much food, and they expected you to eat, drink and make merry, so with a big Christmas meal, a huge boxing day feast, I would gain a lot of weight over the holiday. The other tradition that my wife’s family had was a big family dinner on New Year’s Day. This was a fun time once the effects of the night before had worn off.

Time went on, and my parents passed and my wife’s father passed and we had children. These cosmic events went away. Too bad I miss them, but not enough to bring them back. We now have a small Xmas day and do not celebrate Boxing Day with a massive meal, nor do we have an enormous meal on New Year’s Day. However you celebrate these days, I hope they are all you want and need them to be.