Happy New Year!
This morning on the Today show they were talking about trends for 2012. I'm not big on "trends". Typically I'm a committer.
(I committed, long ago to overalls. I think they're functional, cute and I have them in varying lengths and colors... and I wear them. Every once in a while I'll get someone joking with me that "overalls are back" alongside a picture of some model at Fashion Week wearing a pair.
Doesn't faze me. I'm loyal to my khaki, white, and jean.... short and long sets of overalls no matter what the magazines say. It only validates my longstanding relationship with overalls :) and gives me a good chance to wear them proudly in front of all those naysayers)
Back to the point - one of the "trends" which I hope won't be a trend, but a way of life... is to "unplug". Meaning, every once in a while, turn off all the electronics and just exist, in this moment. Without feeling badly that your second grade nemesis just bought a house and you're still renting, or that your coworker just signed up for their 20th Marathon and you're still working on getting up the courage to run the local 5k - Who cares?
I think there is a healthy amount of competition that keeps people striving to do better, but then there's the unhealthy obsession that keeping tabs on your 2000+ facebook friends and trying to keep up with Joneses is somehow going to actually work. The best way to keep up with the Joneses...is to be the Smith's, the Vannatta's, the Buffett's. Make the world MORE interesting by being yourselves.
Do you think Warren was inspired to be awesome because his friends on facebook were showing him up? I think not. Enough of my rant... but I "unplugged" for the holidays - in case you thought I fell off the bandwagon! ha
The holidays were an interesting one for me - with this whole nothingnewforayear thing. I was very much aware that the rest of the world was getting a lot of new things that I wasn't... I was also uber aware of the fact that the gifts I would be giving people were not on any of the most sought after gift lists...
Luckily I had a lot of things, people wanted. Despite being slightly used, people were surprisingly happy with their gifts. An ode to the fact that, newer isn't necessarily better. My mother got me a new vacuum for Christmas, and so I gave away both my regular vacuum and my Shark to some good friends, and everyone won!
After the new year, I took a look around and decided I needed a little sprucing up at the house. Just because you aren't buying anything new doesn't mean you should look dull or your house! My mom used to always say that just because you're poor doesn't meant you have to be dirty... it doesn't cost much to be clean. She also said when you're fasting - you shouldn't LOOK like you're fasting. (Matthew 6:16)
She was right. There was something I could do to liven the place up! And so... I was on the hunt.
I'd been scouring websites of other peoples living rooms to get ideas, but wasn't coming up with much. Swooped in to a Goodwill I'd never visited and there it was... an awkwardly bulging, turquoise lamp without a shade. For some reason I felt for it. For a couple of bucks I brought her home and tried her out. She's a rather large, loud lamp and so I thought it probably best not to tame her with a cream colored lampshade I already had. Nope. She wasn't a trend setter, she had waited patiently on that Goodwill shelf to find her home and her perfect match.... A bright red shade from a forgotten lamp...
Isn't she a beaut??
And the table she's on... found her in the backyard buried under some overgrowth.
Merry Christmas to me :)
Ironically enough, I looked up that bible verse she always quoted and not far from that verse, was this one...
Matthew 5:13
Appropriate I'd say - and... I'm plugged back in.
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