Time to shine, time to reflect, time to be better you

On December 26, 2019 By Inese, visual artist, writer and life sciences bloggerIn Christmas, green living, happiness, hope, lifestyle18 Comments

Delightful and healing experience

I hope you are also enjoying the peaceful, relaxing and uplifting holiday time. If you are keeping things simple around Christmas as I am, you might also find this time very healing and very delightful. Keep it that way! I think it is damaging to get all stressed out about gifts and food because this time is about having a new outlook on life, new hope and belief. The focus should be on the tree and its symbolism, not on what we eat, what we wear and what gifts we receive. The most important gift was there for everybody, and being obsessed with buying more and more “stuff”, it is possible to miss the true meaning of this time.

Over-consumption and consumerism

Consumerism is not only a bad approach to living life, but also the main cause of overproduction and over-consumption of pointless and useless things. This causes in turn huge pollution of water, soil and air; we call it also climate change. When people say they are buying a plastic tree to save the real tree, they are not actually saving anything. The natural tree is biodegradable and does not cause toxic leftovers while plastic garbage is probably one of the most serious side effects of over-consumption.

Plastic waste

Scientists are actively testing ways of up-cycling plastic and turning it into fuel and similar things; certain types of plastic degrade under sunlight. There have been even discovered microorganisms which can degrade plastic. The problem is, however, that most of plastic waste is hidden in landfills where it might never biodegrade. Big part of plastic waste floats in oceans and other waters and degrades to extent: big plastic objects break down into tiny plastic waste and it is destroying life in water. Some particles are described as very toxic to humans and animals.

Biggest pollutants

Fast fashion and accessories are also among huge pollutants. The same goes about plastic toys. If synthetic materials were degrading at a fast pace, there would be no need to burn them. There are so many once or hardly used items, that nobody can ever recycle, down- or upcycle all of them. Burning these materials causes very toxic smoke and causes harm to everything, including huge damage to soil, air and waterways. That is not to mention all efforts which take manufacturing and transporting such non-essential items. These processes cause more pollution and damage to climate.

Food waste

People, who do not cook from scratch and have no experience in re-using leftover food after parties and festive meals, throw out millions of tonnes of food leftovers. That is a waste which is not even fed to animals or used as a fertilizer for soil. Just imagine the amount of resources which were used to grow, harvest, process, pack and transport this food.

“Stuff”

It is amazing how many useless things we buy, and especially for Christmas and New Year. Could we limit the number of gifts? We sure could. Could we rather turn this holiday time into a time of great experience? We sure could. How about shining with one’s talents at parties?

Gift cannot buy love or respect. We can certainly please somebody, but material things are just material things. We cannot live without them, but we shouldn’t make the gift shopping and gift giving the most important experience of Christmas, because it is not and it never was.

Celebrate in style

We definitely want festive settings, great mood and delicious meals during holidays. It doesn’t take much. However, it could take work, efforts, a lot of imagination and many ideas.

Be gentle to yourself! Be aware that you can wear only one outfit at a time and the amount of food one person can consume is also limited. Not going overboard decreases stresses, and your bank account will love it, too. You don’t have to be the grandmother, who bought 240 gifts for her grandchildren. If they love you, they will love you regardless of number of gifts, and if they don’t, splurging on gifts is not going to help either.

Resist pressure

Social media really facilitate the need to grab, rush, fight and bargain. Every single place wants you to buy something and internet ads create feeling that you are already late, missed the best deals and will never find the hottest items again. Influencers, who are paid for endorsing or advertising one or another item or brand, play big part in over-consumption, especially among younger people. That is such an important aspect of belonging, or rather we have convinced ourselves that we need some particular item because “everybody has it”!

My favorite Christmas things

I hope you are not everybody, but unique you with your unique style and taste which are not affected by the massive pressure of consumer society.

My favorite thing is my tree decorating process. I have always a real tree or at least a real branch of real tree. I do decorating for approximately 3 days, slowly, thoughtfully, listening to sings, watching movies and so on. It is a process. The other thing is getting in touch and connecting with people, who I love.

Be happy and yourself

I wish you to find yourself in rewarding experiences and pleasurable pastimes! That relaxes, makes fears and anxiety go away and you never feel alone. Such creative experience is a treasure, a true treasure.

Merry Christmas! Happy holiday season and all the best with any other celebration!

The soothing Sunday thoughts: peace, love and joy

On December 24, 2017April 1, 2022 By Inese, visual artist, writer and life sciences bloggerIn blogging, Christmas, love, poetry, story, writing14 Comments

I hope we are all at peace with each other

Since we are still sharing the candlelight

And a hug, a kiss and I love you

Whether you have just one slice

Of bread and a glass of wine

Whether you are in a castle

And you would never know

How much suffering is out there

I hope we are all at peace with the world

The fighter, the lover and the loser

The dreamer, the angry and the doubtful

The smart, the holy and the simple

I hope we are all at peace with our heartaches

Since we can still send our love

To those who are desperate, hungry and forgotten

I hope you can see some snowflakes

Dancing down and falling from the sky

The promise, the hope and the wisdom

Of someone who we all know

I hope you can see how snowflakes

Cover the graves, the streets and the cities

So that we all could have peace and joy

Like white, untouched and pure snow

At least in our thoughts

And the soft warmth of this calming candlelight

For I hope we are all at peace with ourselves and others tonight

Merry Christmas! Peace, love and joy to every home and family! Happy holidays blogging friends!

Christmas memories that can make us cry

On December 18, 2015January 26, 2018 By Inese, visual artist, writer and life sciences bloggerIn Christmas, depression, happiness, lifestyle, positive energy, sadness13 Comments

There is a house on a hill far, far away, across the ocean, across huge fields and deep forests, and my mom is writing a Christmas card to me sitting at her old table, wearing a blue warm shawl around shoulders in her small lovely room. Letters are lining up unevenly, and the card always starts with “My dear daughter”.

Christmas time is very special time not only because we are trying to do something good for others, to give more than take, to support more than we usually do, but also because it brings back memories. If you’re older like me, you are having plenty of memories, as well. Each year has been marked with some event, some person, some special gift, somebody’s birth, wedding or death. I intentionally sometimes do not look through photos. These are the old, real photos on paper that I’m talking about; a few are grey-yellowish already since they’ve been taken more than 50 years ago. I don’t want to hurt myself too much because that is the past and it’s not in our power to return to life those people who have walked away either from us, or from this dimension.

If you are like me, your friends and family live very far away in another continent. My husband’s family is in Canada, but nobody resides close to us. Our Christmas means only two of us, and I am so grateful it is two, not only one. I have had completely lonely Christmas and bad ones, too, when there was no food on the table and when I even couldn’t get a bus ticked to get to my family back then in Latvia. I have been sick during some Christmas and I have been extremely happy also. I have been even freezing terribly during some Christmas, there was very little firewood at home, and we needed it badly to keep the fire in the stove going and ourselves from freezing.

If you are a very sensitive person who easily slides into depression, you should keep yourself away from the most painful memories, too. Some tear or a few running down the cheek is absolutely fine, but we shouldn’t submerge ourselves into a deep, dark, lonely lake of tears and melancholy. It helps to be among other people, at least chatting with online friends or somebody over the phone will make it feel as if together with somebody. There are always events at the church, and nobody feels lonely there. It is wrong to assume that one has to be only smiles if they want to cry in reality. It is fine to let your memories unfold as long as they don’t wrap you up in a too thick layer of regrets, feeling of guilt and sadness. The worst companion for a lonely grieving person is alcohol. It can create the illusion of joy and pleasure, but it fades away very quickly leaving one in deeper depression than ever. Whatever you do, do not use alcohol as a pain reliever. The blurry mind gives us wrong instructions and takes onto wrong route.

Whatever our memories and situation at Christmas, there is always something to be grateful for. It is fantastic to be with somebody. It is great to have good food. It is excellent to have lights and candles and to be warm. It is a blessing to have somebody who loves you and who you can love in return. Don’t have a party? So what? Have to stay in bed? Well, next year should be having a better ending then. Things did not happen as you expected? They here and there do, and they very often don’t. Too busy, too many guests, too boring and tiring party? Relax; take your time, one can always find an excuse to sit down at some quiet corner.

My best Christmas memories are associated with family which is far away at the moment. We were very happy together. Celebration was not that much about plenty or expensive gifts those times, but mostly about the great feeling, Christmas warmth, delicious self-made meals, Christmas songs. Our tradition also includes saying a Christmas poem at the tree, and all kids were doing that in order to receive their gifts. It was always a bit different in Latvia: the biggest celebration is on December 24. We are supposed to have 9 dishes on the table; we are supposed to eat something 9 times during this night, we sing a lot of special Christmas songs and we have also other 2000 year old traditions: like dressing up in special costumes and visiting other houses in the neighbourhood. It used to be so much fun that sometimes we returned home only by 3 or 4 in the morning. We were laughing a lot, even dancing. Giving, receiving and unwrapping of gifts was always done on December 24, as well. Therefore, Canadian Christmas seems quite boring to me. It’s most likely a very nice celebration when somebody gives a Christmas party, but it is a really slowly unwinding night for people who do not have any guests, visitors and who are simply lonely.

We cannot buy love or happiness with a gift, but we can show our love and gratitude. Giving somebody an opportunity to feel safe and preventing somebody from loneliness is a valuable gift, as well. There are people who only need you to be with them, and not much more. To light up a candle, to make a place for joy.