I've always loved the way things go together in life, how everything and everyone you look at, think about, anticipate are all connected, sometimes tenuously, like a tightrope walker, sometimes firmly, like a spider to its glorious web. Over the years I've come to realise how vital those connections are, to everything in life. |
They are the connections between billions of people, rich, poor, all over the world. These threads are unseen, yet truly making this enormous world of ours into a virtual village. We have the power to help, to enjoy, to send funny jokes (who thinks those up, by the way?) to know at lightning speed what is happening in other countries, to watch movies, learn how to fix absolutely anything in the house, even the most obscure parts of it, and engage in all kinds of talents we never knew existed in us! We can instantly learn of kindness and cruelty beyond imagining.
This year is different though. In addition to all of these rambling thoughts there is the matter of the pandemic. We still stay home. Everyone here still wears masks when shopping for groceries. We are in the vulnerable elderly group. Next Tuesday will be time for the booster shot to protect us from Covid-19. Yay.
Christmas gets closer every day. It’s a time for folks to gather together and hopefully be kind to each other. But that isn’t always the case. Instead, it has become a time of agonizing about gifts. The ability to get them. The ability to afford them.
Hear this though. There are many folks who have survived quite happily by not exchanging gifts. There are those who donate money or gifts to other less fortunate souls. They say there is great satisfaction in the heart from doing this.
This year there are supply problems on the enormous container ships that bring Christmas gifts from Asia and other far away places. One of them lost more than 100 large containers in rough seas off Vancouver Island. Lots of ‘stuff’ lost. Shore pollution. Missing store supplies.
So this is a great opportunity and perfect excuse to reduce gift giving, or use you imagination to make your gifts. Lots of help on YouTube if you’re short of ideas!
My personal favourite gifts to give are things in jars. This is only limited by your imagination. The good thing about it is whoever receives one knows you did it with them in mind.
Thinking of them is important. But as you do with the rest of life all around you, actively keeping up with the connections is always better.
How do you connect? How much does it mean to you? What are your best life connections, and where are they?
Pinas strobus
This pine is very hardy and like most plants in my garden requires very minimal care and watering. Each year it is pruned to keep it in line with the top of the fence behind it.