Black Friday thoughts

Friday, November 25, 2022  I don’t think I ever really embraced the Black Friday chaos, well except maybe one year long long ago when I needed to find a cabbage patch doll for one of my kids.  lol  So my post for today is one I’ve shared before, but worth reposting.

“Black Friday is the day we trample people for things we don’t need, the day after being thankful for what we have.”

The holiday season should not collapse by default into the “shopping” season. Enjoying the holidays and cherishing those we love should not devolve into stressing out over the holidays, or endless shopping, or something we feel we have to “survive.”

Instead, this year, make it your goal to elicit JOY from the season and be the one person you know who is walking around smiling and happy and content.

This year, instead of obsessing over sales and shopping malls, decide rather to give 10X more thought to making time for those you love, to being more thoughtful and caring and gracious and kind.

Make it your ambition, not to contribute to the heap of junk no one will even care about six months from now, but rather to find ways to deepen your most important relationships and show those you love how MUCH you love them — not by buying them stuff, but by spending time with them, by really listening to them, by going places and doing meaningful things with them.

And as for yourself, sit down today or tomorrow and make a list of the ten most wonderful things you have already. They might be material possessions, sure (your camera, let’s say), but they might also be simple things … like your health, like a journal and a walk in your favorite park, like a stack of great library books you’re excited to start reading, like your recordings of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos.

We have SO much to be grateful for already. And to repeat something I heard somewhere and find holds so true: “The best things in life aren’t just free … they aren’t even things.”

This Friday the best thing you can do is NOT rush around in traffic all day fighting a bunch of crazies to get in line to buy a bunch of junk no one really needs.

Stay home.

Make a cup of hot cocoa.

Put on some music. Pick up a book. Or take up your pen and journal.

Maybe call someone you love and just spend some time laughing and talking . . . and being thankful that you DO have someone you love, that you CAN laugh together, that you CAN talk with them.

At the end of the call, pause and then just say: “You’re amazing. You know that?”

Opt out of Black Friday. Opt in for a richer, more fulfilling life.

– Sebastian Michaels

We plan to spend the day enjoying our family and eating leftovers. Happy Friday!

Photo of the day:  The guardian dogs love to have the gentle boy run with them.  Notice Juno grabbing Blue’s ear as he tried to get ahead of her.  ha!

And when the gentle boy is out with the guardian dogs, Banjo always can find someone in here to snuggle with. This is our daughter in law. ❤️