Posts by Pat:
No More Holiday Blues?
In his book “No More Holiday Blues,” Wayne Dyer pointed out the pressure we may have to make it perfect. So is it no wonder we sometimes feel the “blues” and “less than?” Trying to live up to some unrealistic expectations (others or our own) is a recipe for disappointment and frustration.
Dyer suggested that we find time to reflect and consciously choose to embrace the true spirit of the season and gave us some suggestions. Ask yourself if you are…
- Choosing to see the season through children’s eyes. No one gets more joy from the holidays than young children. They seem to be seeing everything for the first time. We too should just view things and enjoy them!
- Choosing to get into the spirit of giving and being generous. Giving time, compassion or gifts will please others, which will please your spirit.
- Choosing to rethink traditional gift-giving. Did you (or will you?) agree with friends and family members to limit how much you will spend. Make gift-giving an exercise in creativity. A photograph, a poem or a small family heirloom is a truly personal gift that can enrich both the giver and the receiver.
I think this classic Peanuts strip meets all three oft Dyer’s suggestions, don’t you?
Christmas is a special time and there are so many choices we can make. It behooves us to make the sane ones…the ones that enhance the joy of the experience; the ones that keep us from ending up nuttier than a fruitcake!
A story of the fir tree…
Long, long ago in a country where the winter days are dark and cold, and snow and ice cover the ground, every year as the days grew shorter and the nights grew longer, the people became frightened: what if the summer never came back; what if it stayed cold and dark all the time. There […]
Do we get a tomorrow?
Why is it that we saw Christmas decorations before we even got the Halloween ones down? And why is it that in the hours before the Thanksgiving feast many of us were making up shopping lists for the coming weekend? We always seem to be looking ahead to what’s next. Today doesn’t seem to hold […]
getting ready for our new year…
December is always a somewhat crazy month…a month of highs and lows, of stress and relaxation, of endings and beginnings. As we face the end of the year, we may face a bit of melancholy sparked with a dab of hope: I’m suggesting we give ourselves a gift of some time now in order to […]
The challenge is not the earthquake…
The Grand Canyon wasn’t created by an earthquake! While it’s tempting to imagine that… it turns out that what makes change happen is usually… The things that break all at once aren’t really a problem. You note that they’re broken, and then you fix them. And often, because we notice the breakage, we more than […]
A favorite story of mine…
One of my favorite stories bears repeating from a 2017 post of mine! Two brothers grew up and worked together on the family farm. One married and had a large family. The other was single. At the day’s end, the brothers shared everything equally, produce and profit. Then one day the single brother said to […]
when I want to change…
I read about an effective way to form good habits and break bad ones. The article I read said to change your habits, change your identity. The concept was a reminder that how we see and label ourselves can dramatically affect our habits. A paper published in 2011 by a team of Harvard and Stanford […]
The music of our lives…
This October was the opening concert of the Walla Walla Symphony featuring our new music director and conductor, Dina Gilbert, and the popular suite, The Planets, by Gustav Holst. It was great! (And my thought for today is that we can consider our lives as symphonies too!) When we consider our lives as a symphony, […]
Our attitudes caused by..?
Our attitude can be based on politics, the weather, the way people treat us, or a whole lot of other things. Or…it could be whatever we choose it to be. When we allow our attitude to be determined by it can be volatile, undependable, and not very productive! With all the media “news” these days […]
Why don’t they change?
Have you ever wished/prayed/exhorted/pleaded for someone to change? “If only he would get a job.” “If only she would choose a different person.” “If only they would let me help them change.” After all, we want the best for them don’t we? And…we just happen to think we know what the best should be. If […]