1.) Stop going to Target. (That absurd “Dollar Spot” section right when you walk in the door riddled with plastic crap made in China should seriously be outlawed.)
2.) Stop going to the mall.
3.) Stop shopping online for things you, your kids, your brother, your mother, and your neighbor don’t need.
Black Friday sale, Cyber Monday sale, sale for no reason to warp your mind into thinking you need it to be happy sale…all this holiday shopping marketing and mayhem blows my mind. Moreover, the fact that so many of us still buy into it all (literally and figuratively) in the year 2015 when we know better, makes me feel like I want to smack my fellow humans to wake us up and out of the drone zone.
People, what are we doing?!
Can we discuss some examples of what you, me and the people you love and I love/like/work with/share office or home space with/teach our kids might actually need for gifts or “treats” this year?
*Our health
*Some extra free time
*A break
*A good laugh
*Some love/lovin’/a big fat hug
*A few extra hours of sleep
*Quality, accepting, comfortable, company
*Yummy fresh food
*Clean water
Every hour we spend at the mall, we’re not spending making dinner with friends, playing with our kids, or making whoopie with someone we’re in love with. Every hundred bucks we spend on our 20th pair of jeans, the newest electronics, or another pair of shoes, we don’t spend on an extra mortgage payment to pay off our homes a year earlier, a gym membership that could help keep our hearts ticking a few years longer, or a credit card payment that could finally set us debt free. Every minute of time we spend on putting energy into “stuff” instead of ourselves and the ones we love around us, we are failing at truly taking advantage of this ONE SINGLE LIFE.
I don’t know about you, but I sure don’t like wasting time when it is the only thing we cannot get back.
Later in life or at the end of this life, our kids won’t remember that time they got the coolest toys for Christmas at the expense of you working until 11pm every night, they will remember when you showed up to 4th grade school lunch as a surprise on a random Tuesday. Later in life or at the end of this life our friends won’t remember that trinket or tchotchke we ran around like mad trying to find just in time for the holiday gift exchange, they will remember when we were a shoulder while they went through a horrible divorce, or that we were the only one who visited that time they were sick in the hospital. Later in life or at the end of this life, our spouses won’t remember how we left the fanciest and sparkliest gifts underneath the tree, they will remember how we always made coffee for them on lazy snuggly Sunday mornings, or that we left secret love notes around the house for them to find at random.
Save your money and save your time. Don’t buy (ahem) into this shopping frenzy chaos. Instead, maybe go call your mother or grandparents, tell them you love them, and that you’re on your way over to their house right now so you can all have tea and eat cherry vanilla ice cream together.
‘Tis the season to prioritize.
#LessStuffMoreTimeTogetherHappyLife #ThingsThatMatter #HappierHolidays
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