A Word in Your Ear picks some great words for a weekly photo challenge. This week the word is “islands”. Here are some pictures from my first, and probably only, cruise.
The cruise left Fort Lauderdale and sailed to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. While the scenery was breathtaking, the three weeks following on land still feeling like I was on the ship was a slight deterrent for cruising again. Next time, I fly, I land, I enjoy….and I don’t have to take sea sickness pills on dry land.
I just wanted to take a moment, before the quiet celebration begins, to wish all of my fellow bloggers a very happy and healthy new year!! May we all be blessed with continued words, wisdom and hilarity in the upcoming year. Many blessings to you all.
My Christmas holidays are a mere sixty minutes shy of becoming reality. My body and my mind are both looking forward to an abundance of cheesy holiday movies, quality time with my dog and making more holiday memories with my family. My bloggers brain will be on hiatus for a few days – although I’m sure I won’t be able to quiet those voices for long.
It’s time to Freshly Press myself into some fleece jammies and watch my world turn into a snow globe from the comfort of my living room.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you who amuse me, inspire me and affect me in a positive way!!
Our presence on this revolving planet was never meant to be simple or straight-forward. Without a heaping portion of challenges and quandaries thrown into the recipe of our existence, the end product of our being would be bland and predictable.
Life has a way of making us feel like we are in a batting cage with no bat. There is no helmet and no way out of that metal encasement. The fastballs keep coming at 97 mph and we are powerless against their velocity. As much as we try to dodge that line of fire, and even the ricochets, we end up being pummelled by a few of those spherical missiles and feel like those cage walls are closing in, trapping us in the hail of projectiles.
Feeling overwhelmed can be akin to travelling barefoot in the snow. Regardless of the direction we go, that path seems to stretch to eternity and every road leads up an insurmountable hill. The harder we try to keep up the pace and the level of energy required to reach our destination, the more difficult the trek becomes. We lose interest in the journey, we lose feeling in our extremities and each step sinks us further into the vast collection of flakes, making us feel defeated and hopeless.
This feeling of absolute frustration becomes much more evident during the holidays. I have been noticing a myriad of posts lately about people feeling the holiday pressure – pressure to be the perfect host or hostess, to find the perfect gifts, to choose and display the perfect decorations, to create the perfect meal and to create memories of a perfect holiday.
But some of my best holidays were far from perfect. The gravy was lumpy, the turkey was dry, the tree was on a 30 degree angle from centre and, as she does every year, my mother had left most of the price tags on our gifts. It still happens on an annual basis and it will continue to be one of my favorite memories of our Christmas holidays.
Take each day one at a time. When you feel like you are being swallowed by the maelstrom, stop and take a moment to breathe, remember to take small steps and find one piece of scenery that makes you smile. Hold that picture in your mind until you see another small piece that makes you smile. Before you know it, you’ve made it through the mayhem, completely intact, and you’re still smiling. That uphill battle to get through the holidays has levelled to a flat surface and those frosty feet no longer feel cumbersome and lifeless. And maybe you will realize that the holiday isn’t meant to be perfect, it’s just there to spend time with friends and family and to simply be enjoyed.
Today’s world is a far cry from simple. It is a labyrinth of cultures, race, skin color and vastly different systems of belief. It is a melting pot of strong ideals and judgements, and it is quickly becoming far less tolerant than it once was.
I happen to celebrate Christmas, and in the process of that celebration I can be heard uttering two words that, although were once mainstream, are now, by some, thought to be completely offensive. Merry Christmas. Two words that contain the ideals of the child I once was and now hold dear the spirit of a celebration that I embrace.
I am not a vindictive person and when I choose to verbalize those two words, I am not negating the fact that you may not celebrate this particular holiday. I am choosing to share my love of the holiday season in my way. I am attempting to insinuate my child-like joy into the moments of your day by choosing to wish you the best of the holiday season in a way that I learned through osmosis. There used to be something exceptionally special about watching the joy spread by speaking those two words. It was like watching a wave of true happiness spread from one person to the next. Now, instead of riding that wave, it is more like treading lightly on the edge of the water, ever mindful of sharp objects in the sand.
I have felt trapped at times, wondering if I should only articulate the two words that do not seem to easily offend, but happy holidays doesn’t encapsulate the true spirit I have at this time of the year. Sure, it may be less offensive to some, but perhaps they don’t take the time to know the feeling behind the words. By wishing you a Merry Christmas, I am merely saying that I want you to enjoy your way of celebrating as much as I enjoy mine and somehow inject some of my cheer into your day.
So let me throw caution to the wind and impart my holiday spirit to you on this Sunday morning. Merry Christmas to all and may the spirit of the holiday season, whatever your holiday may be, bring merriment to your smile and gladness to your heart.
polysyllabic profundities 