Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Hermit Syndrome

So, basically, I haven't been out in the world past my driveway since Friday. Yep, I've become a recluse. And for the most part, I'm fine with that. However, I had a dream last night that I was shunned by the world and had to work in a tiny little room while everyone else was having fun all together. I was sad in my dream, but actually, that doesn't sound too far from the truth. Since I started working part time, I've kind of shut myself off from the world. I have friends (I really do!) but like me they are busy with their own lives. Is this what happens to those sad people that make headlines when they are found by police buried in piles of newspaper? Am I going to end up on an episode of "Intervention"?

I don't think I'm that far gone. I'm just taking a break from the world. Bears do it. Flowers do it. Caterpillars do it. I rest my case. So there, subconscious. I'm fine. I don't need your dreams of shunned loneliness. I'm fine! I will emerge from my den of hibernation, my layer of protective earth, and my swaddling cocoon. And when I'll do I'll be a much better person for it. I'll see the world with new wide eyes. I'll bloom in bright beautiful colors, and I'll fly to my highest potential.

Right now, I think I'll just cuddle up on in my recliner and read, crochet, and be a hermit just a little while longer.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Christmas before Thanksgiving

My friend Jenni inspired me to update my blog, since the last time I updated it was before Halloween!  I'm a slacker!

Anyway, I was thinking about Thanksgiving and how it gets the shaft every year.  As soon as Halloween is out of the way (sometimes even before) Christmas decorations start coming out.  We kind of skip right over Thanksgiving.  Maybe it's because there is not a huge amount of preparation that needs to take place.  Maybe it's because we feel like there's not much in it for us except lots of food and football.  (I'm a fan of both, so I feel like there's MUCH in it for me.)  This year the "black Friday" sales actually started before Thanksgiving Thursday! 

I LOVE Christmas, don't get me wrong.  I'm always ready to see the sparkly green, red, silver, gold, blue decorations hit the store shelves.  I'm sure I'm the first on my block to start listening to Christmas music.  In fact, I have been known to set my ipod to Christmas music in the heat of the summer, just because I miss it. 

I think maybe Thanksgiving would get more attention and we would express the thankfulness more if it was celebrated a week after Christmas....but wait...that's New Year's Day.  And we certainly can't have a food celebration when we are starting our diets for the new year.  Maybe February....oops, Valentine's Day.  Sometimes people aren't very thankful during this ooey, gooey month.  What about March or April?  Mmmm, Easter with another big meal.  May?  Nope, the start of summer just doesn't seem like a good time to be thankful for the harvest.  Any summer month, in fact might not work.  September?  Now, that's a possibility, but with school starting and all the prep for Octoberfest, that may not be good.  October, well, there's the aforementioned Octoberfest as well as Halloween.  November?  Wait, I'm right where I started. 

Here's a thought...why not celebrate Thanksgiving everyday.  Not just on a Thursday in November?  I don't mean the food and football celebration (although I wouldn't be super upset about that), but the real thanksgiving.  The one in which we thank God each day for the blessings in our lives.  Let's start a revolution...Thanksgiving EVERY Day.