Holiday Wish List

“I’m hungry,” I said to my friend Jule as I drove around downtown looking for parking.

“Why don’t you grab something?” She said.

“I don’t have time.  Plus I don’t want to eat just whatever anymore.  It needs to be consciously-prepared.”

“So basically only eating at home.”

“No, there’s the place on Haley that the angry hippies run.”

“Oh right.”

“I don’t know if they’re actually angry.  They might be hungry.  Anyway, I can’t get there now I’m on a schedule.”

“Ok.”

“Ya, I’m pulling in.”

“Ok.”

“Check ya later.”

“Good luck.”

“Yup.”

And I went the Whole Friggin Afternoon without eating.  And did 7 errands, which is the equivalent of 70 errands in a place where it’s not park n drive, park n drive, drive n park, a normal place like New York or London, or my imaginary sophisticated-yet-quaint sustainable eco-magical utopian dream village in Greece or maybe Bali, or Big Sur, only warmer.

Anyway, point is, I let myself get swept up in the anti-magic of the holiday season.  Too much doing, too much outflow, not enough input.  Literally.

So my holiday wish list, for me, and for you too, doesn’t have any stuff on it.  It’s not world peace or an end to the climate crisis or any grand plan, though I’d welcome progress on any of that.  My wish is to stay the course of what I know I need to keep going at my own personal optimal functioning in this life. 

To keep my own engine stoked, my own cup filled, my own body, mind, and spirit safe and protected one day at a time, one minute at a time, and repeat.  Until January.

And sure, there will be some festivities and non-routine activities, but I’m not going to override my baseline needs in service of a fantasy happy holiday spree.  I’m going to decline as needed.  Rest as needed. Nourish as needed.

My reality, when I’m in it, serving it, living it, honoring it, is better than any fantasy I could dream up.  It really is, because I can be in it with the people I love and the people I love who I don’t even know yet and feel at peace, in my head and my heart.  

What gift could be better?  I’m giving myself that this year.  The gift of being at peace with what is, the is-ness of myself and those around me.  And I wish that for you too.  I’m gonna keep going.  

www.livingeveryminuteofit.com