Simple Living | Considered Holiday Lists

It’s snowing today. Flakes are floating, dancing, tumbling through the air as wind gusts catch them. Landing one atop the other, piling up, each flake deepening the chance that the ground won’t be seen until spring. This is when you layer on, wear the woolens, have another cup of tea. This is when you sit with your paper and pen, making lists of things. Because, here you are, in the season of snow and the season of lists. To-do lists, to-remember lists, to-purchase lists. 

And I just wonder, here in the middle of all these lists at the brink of the upcoming holiday hoopla, if I could remind us to consider. Consider what we already have. Consider what we might find instead of buy. Consider what we might offer instead of purchase. Yes, there are those things that we do need to exchange money for (a new dress came for me the other day), but also, there’s so much that we already have. Curiously, it seems so easy to overlook our own abundance when we’re inundated by near-constant advertisements and influencers telling us what the must haves are this season. If we aren’t careful, contentment can be so easily lost, the value of what we have quickly diminished by comparison. 

Hold on with me, loves. Let’s go another way.

Let’s thoughtfully create our lists. Lists for gift giving, for holiday hosting, for holiday decorating. Then, let them be our guides. When we need something, let’s remember that our options may include found, foraged, made, thrifted, borrowed, or purchased new. When we do purchase, let’s spend purposefully, with small, local, ethical, crafted, quality (any or all of these) in mind. Let’s not forget gift alternatives like experiences and subscriptions, and that the opportunity for fresh greenery might be just outside our doors (or a quick trip to a local arborist, tree lot, or florist - maybe even ask for what they’re throwing away). To this goodness, we can add bare twigs and real fruit and nuts (wild or domestic), and any baubles or bling from those boxes of things that we already have.

Then, let’s be done. Let’s not let the doing take us from the experiencing. Let’s slow down time and give ourselves a most precious gift - space. Room and time for just being in this beautiful, wintery season. For taking in these moments that we’ll never get again. 

I’ll be here with you, loves, sipping a hot drink, gazing out the window at the floating, dancing, tumbling flakes of snow.