Tag: chapstick

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A Calm Christmas: Celebrations During Christmas

Photo by Element5 Digital on Pexels.com

This December, I’m slowly making my way through Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year by Beth Kempton (2020), and in Chapter 4 which begins Part 2, she presents ways to consider mindful giving as we celebrate during Christmas.

Kempson says, “Mindful giving comes down to three questions: whether to give, what to give, and how to give.” She goes on to explain that sometimes, the best gift of all is the gift of nothing (there is a child’s picture book title by that name) – that the social contract of giving is often felt most strongly this time of year when the release is there to simply forego gifting. In fact, she provides a statistic that 60 million gifts in 2018 in the UK were unwanted, according to one study, and that another survey found that six out of every ten gifts given to a sample of 2,000 adults were unwanted. Before giving, she offers 3 questions to guide the gifting: is it mindful, is it meaningful, and is it memorable?

Our office holds a gift exchange, and while it’s fun, I’d lay a wager that the numbered gifts fall into the statistics above. For this occasion, I look at the dollar value and either go with wrapped cash or a gift card from a certain huge retailer named after a river in South America. Everyone participating seems to like this option so they can either use it to further their own Christmas shopping or personalize a gift for themselves – from someone who doesn’t know any of them well enough to give a one-size-appeals-to-all gift in this eclectic mix of personalities that would satisfy whomever ends up with it. And it works like a charm.

For the smaller department sector, I set out to answer the age-old question about the best gift for all ages. Everyone loves it. Everyone needs it. Everyone uses it. No one expects it.

And I came up with the answer to this universal question by looking deep into my own soul and asking: what does everyone need that everyone probably already has but could use more of, where size, age, gender, religious affiliation, and political persuasion does not matter? And a clear answer rose to the top.

Chapstick.

I ordered three dozen tubes of Candy Cane Chapstick, along with a supply of clip holder sleeves I’d seen on a travel blog recently. The sleeves have a clip that allows users to attach the tube to a lanyard or a purse loop or backpack strap so that the tubes don’t end up in pockets, either lost through holes, melting with body temperature – or worse, going through the washer and dryer and staining clothes with petroleum spots like I’ve done so many times.

I grabbed a tabletop tree from Hobby Lobby and festooned the tree with the best guard against bitter winter wind that exists – this universal tiny tube of lip bliss. And here is what I discovered: you can’t go wrong with a candy cane Chapstick tree. It’s mindful, meaningful, and (hopefully) memorable – at least for a season.

Even with all of the thanks and appreciative conversations with people asking for the links to be able to re-create the idea at their family gatherings this year, the thrill of giving something you know people both need and want far outweighs the joy of receiving. It’s the greatest feeling in the world!

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My Retirement List 31-40 of 50

I’m taking the week to write list poems of all the things I’ll do when I retire. They say we should never retire from something, always to something. So I’ll retire to some work and some play, but I want to steer the wheel and throw away the clock. This is day 4 of 5 that I’ll list ten things I’ll do when I am officially off contract for life.

First, a review of the previous days:

  1. I’ll write into the day.
  2. I’ll visit the library twice a week to check out new books.
  3. I’ll read into the evening, dogs snuggled in my lap by the fire.
  4. I’ll shop at the farmer’s market for fresh fruits and vegetables.
  5. I’ll cook things fresh-grown and scrubbed clean.
  6. I’ll take morning walks with the dogs, strolling instead of hurrying.
  7. I’ll make pictures and put them on calendars and notecards.
  8. I’ll pick wildflowers.
  9. I’ll put the picked flowers in the flower press.
  10. I’ll make bookmarks with my pressed flowers.
  11. I’ll savor my coffee, linger longer before showering.
  12. I’ll meet friends for lunch.
  13. I’ll design patterned rag quilts.
  14. I’ll cut flannel quilt squares and stitch them in rows.
  15. I’ll go to sleep when it’s dark and awaken when it’s light.
  16. I’ll wash my dishes by hand in warm water with fragrant dish soap – and blow the bubbles.
  17. I’ll bake fresh, healthy muffins for breakfast.
  18. I’ll volunteer to drive someone to a doctor’s visit.
  19. I’ll make a big pot of soup every few weeks to freeze and give to shut-ins.
  20. I’ll pick my own apples in North Georgia.
  21. I’ll take more impromptu personal field trips to satisfy my curious adventure spells.

22. I’ll coordinate my wardrobe down to the kind where all the tops match all the bottoms and all the outfits have three shoe possibilities for my minimal approach – and live more simply.

23. I’ll go on writing crawls, writing in first one place and then the next through the day.

24. I’ll attend more book festivals near me and listen to more regional authors speak.

25. I’ll sit in Starbucks and write just for the crooner music and the perfectly-lit ambience…oh, and the coffee.

26. I’ll carry only a small Travelon crossbody bag with my driver’s license, some money, and a tube of Candy Cane chapstick that I buy by the box.

27. I’ll sit on my front porch and pray.

28. I’ll learn more about making salves and tinctures, and take a hobby class on it.

29. I’ll wrap all my wine bottles with twine to create vases and fill them with wildflowers and leave them on random doorsteps where they don’t have Ring cameras to catch me.

30. I’ll take more slow country drives at sunset to see the sun sinking below the fenced cattle meadows.

And now for today’s list:

31. I’ll choose to see matinee movies on cold days and take a blanket to the theater.

32. I’ll read more travel genre books and go to places my feet may never actually walk.

33. I’ll spend more time grooming my dogs with glove brushes because they love it when I place them in my lap and give them the brush glove massage.

34. I’ll spend a few hours each week one morning chopping vegetables and fruits to go in plastic tubs for easier use in omelets and soups and snacks and dinners.

35. I’ll take more writing cabin excursions and map my route on Roadtrippers.

36. I’ll hang my tree hammock in the afternoon shade and read until dusk.

37. I’ll stroll through the aquarium and take the time to really see what I’m looking at, and spend more time watching my favorite critters (the otters) play.

38. I’ll read more blogs.

39. I’ll listen to more podcasts.

40. I’ll sit in silence more, savoring its goldenness.