'tis the season - stress less, enjoy more

I have to remind myself of that between writing Christmas cards, buying presents (we have simplified our life by buying only for the children in our family – it’s not like the adults need more stuff), attending school concerts (I like those, the atmosphere is always very festive, and music inevitably boosts my mood), daughter telling me we need to bake Christmas cookies (I don’t need that stress in my life right now), planning her birthday party (Harry Potter this year, can’t do away with the birthday party, for sure), and various Christmas and New Year’s dinners (that’s with people, but of course it is easier on me if we get invited than if I have to do the inviting, and planning, and cooking). 

 

So, the part I really enjoy about all of this, always, ever – is the people, the conviviality, the togetherness, the sharing.  I like a good conversation over reasonably good food and wine (I am not too picky when get invited, that is a real treat in itself).  Think about it – it really is about our relationships and interactions with people.  The other holiday stuff we fill our lives with is self-induced stress brought on by social conventions and feelings of obligation.  So it is good to pick and do that which brings us joy and satisfaction and eliminate the rest from our life (I wished I could eliminate all the chauffeuring I do for the kids in the afternoons, it makes for a very unproductive part of my day).

 

 

Black Wednesday?

Ever since our evolution away from a nomadic lifestyle to a life in permanent settlements we have lived out the economic misconception of scarcity, believing that there is not enough to go around, and that only “the fittest survive.”   Among many other apparitions this cultural delusion is responsible for the Black Friday – and now Black Thursday - phenomenon.  Instead of spending meaningful and quality time with family and friends, many now rush out of the house even before Thanksgiving Day is over, to stand in line, fight the crowds, and feed the big box stores some more money, truly believing that there won’t be another deal around, that “it’s now or never.”

We vote with our spending dollars.  How about voting instead for local merchants who add diversity, creativity, and a sense of community to our lives - and enjoying your turkey dinner a little longer, too?  Otherwise we’ll have Black Wednesday soon.

the busy trap

Being busy for the sake of being busy ……Tim Kreider wrote in the NY Times recently how we worship busyness as a virtue and are addicted to it.  Yet, it fills life with meaningless activity, and I have caught myself at it.  Checking Facebook or email five times a day, snacking, driving around shopping, hovering over the children, staying late at the office because of peer pressure (because working hard is a virtue here in America, right?), even when the day’s work is done. Busyness is not only a mechanism of procrastination, but also a shield against delving deeper into life in general, filling emptiness with busyness.  I say “work smart” not “hard,” and fill the rest of your time with meaning.  It’s quality that counts, not quantity.

health is a balancing act

I selected this post to be featured on my blog’s page at Culture Blogs.

Healing is much more than “fighting” symptoms with mechanical or chemical means in order to get rid of them.  Health is an ongoing balancing act that requires continual and never ending internal adjustment.

When you are in tune with your body you begin to notice even slight imbalances, such as fatigue, digestive system upsets, aches, or stress.  Such minor imbalances can easily be rebalanced with gentle methods, like rest, better food, lifestyle adjustments, or energy healing methods (EFT, acupuncture, homeopathy and others).

It’s actually all about your needs. When your emotional and physical needs are met your body, mind and spirit all function in harmony and unison and you are healthy as a consequence.  When, on the other hand, you have unmet emotional needs and you keep ignoring them and your body’s nudging messages, more serious physical symptoms are eventually bound to develop from this stress.

“Perfect health” is fleeting and unattainable on a continuous basis, healing is ongoing as long as you live.

Monday, Monday

What would life be without Mondays?  Our house is usually a mess by Sunday and I am glad that Monday comes around.  The beds get made again, the dishes get washed and put away again, the carpets get vacuumed, the clothes get hung up again, and stuff gets picked up and put in its place.  We need Mondays for a fresh start, to clean up and get organized again, get our head out of the week-end cloud, and simply as an opposite to week-ends.  As much as we grumble about climbing out of the warm bed at 6AM on Monday morning, we need our Mondays.  Mondays are good for us.

Sandy and the people factor

A friend of one of our children said after the power came back on “It was actually kind of nice when the power was out because we all sat around the table and talked.  As soon as the power was back on mom went on FB, dad on YouTube, and I on Xbox.”  We were at two hurricane parties and had a third one at our house during the five days without power, much more togetherness than during any regular work week.  That tells you what is really important in life – it’s relationships, people, togetherness, none of that self-sufficiency business.  No man is an island!  If we could only admit how much we need one another, how interwoven we all are, and how precious that interdependency actually is, we will have come a long way.

energy for the future

Not coal, not oil, not natural gas, not wood, nor nuclear are energy solutions for the future regardless of what the politicians are or are not saying.  “Drill baby drill” and “fracking,” or "liking coal," are indications of increasing desperation, and talk of energy independence without investing in alternative energies is simply a short-term stopgap measure and not a long-term solution.  Closing our eyes and ears to the inevitable, that some time in the not-so-distant future we’ll have depleted the reserves of non-renewable energy sources, is childish and irresponsible.   The sooner we accept responsibility that the world is changing and that we must change with it, the better for all of us.

A large roof with southern exposure is ideal for solar panels that can meet your hot water needs and/or supplement your electric needs.  State and federal tax credits make them worthwhile considering, and they can also be leased now.  Consider triple-pane windows (the standard now for new construction in Germany) and thicker and better insulated walls to avoid heating the outside (in Europe walls are usually about 12” thick).  Geothermal systems use the constant 55o subsurface temperature to heat and cool with much less energy input than conventional HVAC systems and the federal government offers a 30% tax credit on equipment and installation costs.  Passivhaus is a German concept of insulating a house so much that not much energy gets lost, period.  Inevitably, the price for non-renewable energies will keep rising.  Investing in one of the renewable energy sources for your home is like an insurance policy against higher and higher utility bills.

Renewable energy sources are indefinitely available, they never deplete, how great is that.   Solar panel applications, for example, are now ubiquitous in Europe and many other countries.  We saw them everywhere in Italy this summer.

 

 

just being

Usually I am just doing.  Dipping under the radar of doing accesses a place within me that is peaceful, timeless, and emotionally removed (not remote!).  This place permits me to observe more objectively without the emotional entanglement, and it lets me feel, hear, taste, smell, and see without the mental word chatter that permeates my mind. It is difficult to even achieve seconds of this peace of mind, but boy is it worthwhile.