Self-Care, a Gift

It's been days since my last post, 11 in fact.  I've been ill with a thoroughly nasty head cold during most of that time.  Amazing to me that so much mucus can be produced inside one's head.  I've begun to wonder if I am hollow, save for snot.  Certainly, there hasn't been much brain activity during the sick time, among chills and fevers and fuzzy dreams, I have floated and slept and sneezed and blown.  Too much detail?

The last few days of December were wondrous times spent with family, some company staying here.  A party to celebrate Melanie's and Kelly's wedding with 35 close family and friends was a delight. 

Gary made a huge fragrant pot of his signature spaghetti sauce, his homemade caesar salad dressing and hand done croutons and bacon bits.  We fed everyone full to the brim, with decadent spaghetti, flavourful caesar salad, fresh garlic bread, rich Christmas sweets, and cakes (chocolate and carrot), attended with wines and holiday beverages. 

Tim gave a speech and we all welcomed Kelly to the family.  It was fun!  It was yummy!  And it was work!  It was a warm and boisterous family party.

And well worth the time and energy and love that went into it!

Over the holiday, we had times of smaller get-togethers with children living here and from away, and with much loved grandchildren: all treasured and appreciated and held now in fond memory.

I've written myself some notes.  Things to remember for next Christmas.  Ways to simplify and to relax and to spread out the work.  Will I remember?  Will I make changes?  Will I put a higher priority on self-care?  I hope so.  We'll see next holiday season if lessons have been learned.

Perhaps I will finally open the present I can give to myself,

the gift of better self-care!

All photos are mine.

Shame on you Atlantic Superstore and Loblaws!

“Too much is never enough.”

“We say there’s no such thing as too much Holiday.  To help you celebrate in exuberant, over-the-top style, we’ve made…”

“This is the season for overstatement.  Let’s go nuts.”

These are quotes from today’s flyer ads covering the sales available at Atlantic Superstore / Loblaws Inc. for the period November 11 through November 24, 2011.  When I read the words, I felt like someone had gut-punched me, hard.

I’m sure that the words in the ads are meant to entice readers into flurries of spending for groceries, gifts, house wares and clothing, from now until the holidays.

Unfortunately, what is intended to be an advertising lure comes off as bad taste, encouragement to spend wastefully and excessively.

“This is the season for overstatement.  Let’s go nuts.”  This is supposed to be a cute ad, promoting Christmas nutcrackers. Instead it is sickening.  Flippant. Pejorative language to anyone living with mental illness.

“Too much is never enough.”  I understand what Atlantic Superstore and Loblaws Inc. are trying to accomplish—to interest customers, to appeal to the need to have it all; I find the sentence and the concept nauseating.

For the holidays, what about spending less, giving more of yourself or your time to others?  What about loving everyone, including those who are inconvenient or sometimes bothersome?  What about living more compassionately with less me, me, and me?

There is such a “thing as too much Holiday.”  No one needs to “celebrate in exuberant, over-the-top style” when there are people in this community who eat at food-banks or soup kitchens, when there are folks who live in deplorable accommodations in rooming houses or on the streets, when people with mental illness live alone and lonely, shunned by families because of illness and behaviour they didn’t choose.

I understand what the flyer is attempting to do.  Stores are running a business, making profit, increasing sales, providing employment. I get that.

But, come on!  “Too much is never enough.”

Really?

Shame on you Atlantic Superstore and Loblaws Inc!

This photo and opinion are mine.