Well, hello friends. I woke up to a beautiful sunny Sunday and I’m so excited about that. I hope there’s something peaceful and pretty for you to look at in your world right now. Is there anything prettier than sunshine or snow? Starlight, twilight, summer days or winter…I look for the beauty.
That’s why we keep our Christmas tree up for ages. We all love it (I taught the kids — ha! sorry future-partners….my boys will want the tree up for months…and by the way, would you like to inherit 12,000,000 nutcrackers???)
Yesterday it was time to take down the tree, and this is how I do it: I wrap every ornament separately in coloured tissue paper, co-ordinated with each lovely decoration, and store them in a big tub. Then when we decorate the tree next year, we “open” every ornament and often make a little surprised comment about how much we love this one or that one.
From here, I can feel you doing two things:
Agreeing with me — you do something similar! So fun!
Gritting your teeth with the entire pain-in-the-buttness of this approach.
And I am who I am.
And you are who you are.
Do we have to be the same for us to love and respect each other? No. But it seems like right now we give our opinion and give it in a way that can make people feel cancelled. That’s the new term, right? We get ‘corrected’ or get ‘cancelled.’ As an author, I get this a lot. In public. And what people say stands there forever. It’s the price of being a creative and sharing your work with the world.
I wonder if we could try this instead:
It’s such a lovely thing to say, or do. Truly it is — because it leaves some room in the world for everyone else.
Book you don’t like? That’s not for me.
Person you don’t like? She’s not for me.
Decision someone else made that you don’t like? No, that’s not for me.
I know life is not as simple as this when you look at the big issues, like justice and freedom and equality and lawfulness. I know, absolutely, that there are things in the world where we should stand up, correct others, vote, march, fight.
But I also know there are so many times where we can use kindness instead. And “That’s not for me” really is the truth.
It’s not for me, but it might be for someone else.
Hope your Christmas decorations are safely down, the room is rearranged, and there’s a little something beautiful you can find in your world today. It’s tough out there, and we need to keep our spirits up.
Love Catherine x
PS.
Did everyone watch the inauguration? Amanda Gorman was absolutely stunning!
If you need a little healthy-ish sweet today, for the new people here…you can try these little no-bake brownie bites. GF, DF, V.
Hey, if you’d like to leave me a lovely review or a quick star-rating for The 10 Minute Fix on amazon…sending big hugs your way. Thank you.