Following my announcement yesterday of having to leave this venture early. I have had a flood of messages about places to stay and people to see and things to do lol I really had no idea we were already in December. Happy December everyone. I have approximately twenty-three hours of drive time to reach the Canadian border and approximately seventy -Two hours to do it in. Alas, my stopping and meeting the awesome people of the west coast will have to wait. I will be back...I promise!!
As for December. Christmas for some of us. I for one have never been a huge fan of Christmas. OK, when I was a kid I liked it but that was strictly materialistic reasons. I looooved the presents. Once I realized that Christmas had become a government sponsored commercial for (BUY BUY BUY) I developed quite a deep hatred for the holiday season. I despise the question on December 26th "what did you get?" Don't get me wrong, I love the trees and the lights and the warm feeling I get when I am with friends around a fire with a big ol tree in the middle of the room. It's just the overall materialistic mutation we have turned this holiday into that gets to me.
One of my favourite people on this trip was a lady by the name of Joan Gilfoy. I still miss sitting around after dinner and just chatting about whatever and whomever. All good of course :-) We got on the topic of Christmas one night and how it had so quickly become commercial. She told me about her gift request of her children the year before. Instead of buying gifts or making them, she specifically asked her children to go out and do a good deed. She then asked them to report back to her on what they did and how it made them feel and whatever else they got out of the situation. Brilliant!!!! I wish everyone thought this way. I was so amazed at the stories she told me on what her kids actually did. Believe it or not I started to tear up a bit at how humbling the stories were. One always likes to think they do good deeds and help others but these stories were amazing and I wish that is what Christmas could become. What it is supposed to be in the first place. Helping each other through this rat race we call life. How different this world would be if we all spent one holiday season like the Gilfoy's!
Thank you so much Joan for sharing that story with me and I hope through your experience and wisdom and sheer brilliance; someone else will read this and want to try it and thus start the ball rolling in the direction it should be going in the first place.
From the blue sky of San Bernardino California Happy December 1st
Cheers
Margo
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