Truthfully I'm not a great fan of Christmas. I've never
experienced a white Christmas and the Christmas season in
Africa is hot and not much different from the rest of the
year. As a Christian I'm a believer in celebrating Jesus'
birthday but in Durban Christmas time is an unpleasant
materialistic bun-fight and the last 2 weeks of
December here are REVOLTING.
The shopping malls are filled beyond capacity, the stores
are groaning under the weight of far too much stock and
every eaterie in town has a queue outside it. The roads
are jammed with nose to tail traffic - the inlanders
love flooding to the coast for a couple of weeks.
The answer? Head inland of course!
This year we finally got it right. We worked our
fingers to the bone until the end of Friday 16th.
We wound things up as best we could for the
year then packed up a 7 foot trailer full of golf
clubs, tennis racquets, board games and
FOOD (no scrappy stuff allowed!) and set
off for a couple weeks break. Perfecto!!
No internet or mobile phone signal, no distractions,
no friends or relatives, just each other's 5 favourite
people. As soon as we were unpacked and settled
in all stresses melted away and for 10 days hardly a
thought went through my head! I was amazed at how
the peace and quiet - slower way of life -nourished
my weary soul back to good health in such a short
period of time.
I just LIVED - IN THE MOMENT - without
concerning myself with anything more than what to
defrost for dinner :). After 10 days of sleeping,
eating and playing my mind returned, razor sharp and
I had what seemed like a "gazillion" brain-waves. All
sorts of ways I could improve my life, fit in more,
prioritise, let go, etc, etc. It was really inspiring!
I've written pages and pages of lists detailing
what I would like to implement in 2012 and
intend documenting them here in categories.
I always make far too many resolutions but rather too
many than too few I say!! New Year's Resolutions are
great and I'm a firm believer in them (resolutions of all
types - at any time of the year actually) - but one thing
that resolutions do not take into account are curved balls,
the one's life throws at you, and we have had a few of
those already! A good friend had a heart attack on New
Year's Eve & is currently in the Intensive Care Unit of
one of our local hospitals.
Today he had a massive stroke. Who knows what tomorrow
holds for him? Changing your ways (and hence your life)
is a wonderful concept but don't forget to live your life too.
After a busy day today I spent an hour in the pool chatting
to my family over half a glass of red wine. Because life is
short and the whole point of resolutions should be to
make more time for what really counts.
13 comments:
Sending best wishes to your friend...
So so true. I hope that your friend pulls through ok. x
Best wishes for your friend and happy new year!
Love this post Helen ... and I will be praying for your friend! :):):):):):):):):):):)
This is so true... I love this message (except for the part about your friend of course! I send you my best wishes for this friend).
Oh Helen, this post is so inspirational although it has come from someone's health problems. I do hope your friend fights and pulls through this. My thoughts are with you and yes I agree totally, live for today. Is it age that matures us and finally makes us realise this?
Well if it does, I am glad I am getting older (well apart from the few wrinkles appearing) x
wise words! hope your friend is already doing better:)
have a wonderful day:)
What a wonderful inspiring post Helen! Your getaway sounds wonderful. I hope 2012 will be a fantastic year for you and your gorgeous family. Take care. xx
I hope that your friend will be okay!
Hope your friend is getting better Helen.
My dad is getting weaker each day and that was part of the reason why I want to embrace all of life...because it is far to short. Living in the moment is something I want to cherish...so I GET your post.
One of the lessons we embraced after Stuart's death was that we really DO have no idea how precious life is nor how quickly it can end...glad you realise that too, and hope things are improving with your friend
Alison xx
So very very true, life is short and precious. How is your friend? Blissful to have no internet connection and just beeing together with your family, totally wonderful Helen! xoxox
I'm not a fan of Christmas either. Similar to you. So much unnecessary consumption and so many platitudes and superficialities. Ugh. But DH will never, ever agree to my request for us to run away from it all, not even for one year. Sigh. So I'm stuck with it.
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