Sweetest Gifts

There are times for traditions and time for new activities.   I believe Christmas is that time of year. 

my pic from Christmas card

I've been thinking about how in the world did Christmas gift-giving become so commercialized.  Buy this and that and also those!  Looking back at the origins of Christmas, I think the tradition can be traced back to the three wise men.  After all, they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh to baby Jesus.  Useless gifts indeed!  (Although I believe their hearts were in the right place.)  How many of us have received or given useless gifts at Christmas time because of feeling the pressure of having to get something?

📷 guvo59 on pixabay

So this gift-giving thing is way out of hand and very unfortunate for many, especially the kids in poor families.  Yeah, this is the move to the serious side here.  As a kid I dreaded returning to school and hearing all the kids boast about what they got, but worse, asking me what I got.

When I wrote the poem "Discounted" ©1997, this was what crossed my mind.  But also, the magic of Christmas enlightened upon me too.  Because sometimes there are those out there who understand the joy of a child receiving a sweet gift, just because.  God bless the hard-working parent(s) who try their best to give their children good gifts.  I just wish our society (and many others worldwide) would tone it down a bit in pressuring to buy this or that,  as well as those.

Keeping it simple is the best way to go.  Celebrate in other ways too.  After all, baby Jesus didn't need any of that gold, frankincense and myrrh.  What he needed was a warm blanket, a roof over his head, and love.  Isn't that something we could all use?       Theresa M

my pic from Christmas card

🎁❄🎄❄🎄❄🎄❄🎄❄🎄❄🎄🎁

Discounted

Her hands clutched objects colored with the season,

 decorations and ribbons discounted,

as her little girl of five or so
clutched onto her mama’s dress,

 a hand-me-down from long ago.

“Look, mama!” The child would delight

 at all the toys and gifts displayed.

Saddened eyes, weary from no sleep

 would look upon her child with a deep love

that was priceless - never discounted.

Half a smile she bestowed at the voice of her child,

 the unsmiling half at their poverty.

Cold winds and flurries drifted in from the storefront doors

 as people and packages fought their way in and out.

Discounts - sales - hurry don’t be late!

 or nothing will be left for you.

Her hand-me-down dress hung to her knees

 stockingless against the breeze,

Her child wore a coat much warmer than her own.

 Her child was cloaked with warmth all around.

Tons of pigtails with pretty ribbons

 held her dark hair in place.

Her round eyes looked at the world in awe,

 her tiny hands wanted to grasp everything.

But her mama disciplined her well to know,

 “We can’t pay for just anything.”

In line they stood and waited so long

 as customers bought loads of merchandise.

Her turn at the counter, she laid down the decorations

 green, gold, red, discounted down.

The purchases rang up to the pennies she figured

 and with a half-smile she payed

and picked up her package.

A friend stood by the exit door with a smile.

 she nodded, he nodded - hands extended to shake

Change passed, unnoticed to her child -

 the friend would get a gift for her in secret -

Her mama always knew and never doubted

 that her daughter should never be discounted.

Theresa M, ©1997

Merry Christmas to all ...

me and my snowman

🎁

Trading Spaces

This past weekend I rearranged some kitchen furniture and found space I didn’t think I even had. The room is more inviting. Even though my house is small I don’t need lots of space, yet I don’t want to feel cramped. 

my pic of Luke

📷 Goodfreephotos on pixabay

Although there is a limit to what I can change, due to fixtures set in place, I was able to balance off what I could move. And I hardly had to throw anything out to do it.

 OK, I’m amazed - I’m sure you get that. Now I’ve been thinking about other spaces. Spaces that I can and cannot control at the bird site. Of course, I can choose whom to follow, I can mute or block. I can even lock the account. But knowing that a wave of abusive people are going to be let back into that site, well, it’s sickening. I really don’t want to be a part of a site that approves of so much trash. 

In this case, a safer space, a saner place can be helpful. I don’t know about totally getting rid of the bird site - maybe I can just shut the door awhile. Lock it up. Check on it later. 

📷 brisch27 on pixabay

Meantime, I find a safer, saner place to be at Mastodon. It will take time to build an interactive community for what I enjoy, but as I’ve already started to do that, I find that it’s well worth the effort. 

So I’m rearranging my social media furniture. As this year ends, the bird site will be in a closed locked room for now. As the new year begins, the Mastodon site will be explored and enhanced further inside a bright new living room.

 And you know what? It feels good to rearrange and change. Some sadness for loss, but hope for what is to come. That’s life. 

Theresa M

📷 StockSnap on pixabay

find me now at @thetreezz@mastodon.online

A Little Bird Me Told Me So

Once upon a time there was a bird who sent a message to a human.  That human sent a message back, and then to other humans with the help of the bird.  

📷 Lane Jackman on unsplash

Soon birds were flying everywhere, sending so-and-so and you-know-who a message about this-and-that and so-called-breaking-news.

All was a flutter, as one human tried to run the bird business, then passed it on to another human, and so on.

📷 sdm2019 on pixabay

For years the birds were busy, flying high and low, with experts, posers, and common humans sharing their opinions, their views, sometimes sharing something worthwhile, or even nice!

If a human didn’t like a particular other human, they could ask the bird to stop them from seeing the message.  Many humans could actually block or mute those humans they didn’t want to bother with.  All seemed fairly well.

Until…..

One day a certain human manager took over, bragging about how he could control all speech, and he even dared to call it “free” speech.  He had kept throwing ideas about what he would do with the bird messengers.  Many birds were dismissed, as the new manager stopped feeding them just like that!  The rest of the birds got a bit nervous, as did the humans who relied on them for their messages to be sent and received, so they went hunting for safer communities.

Out of the blue, the new manager decided he wanted money from as many of these humans as he could get, and in what can be seen as a projection of his own egomania, he decided to charge eight dollars for a special mark to be put on their message, so they could appear significant.  But this was the same mark that was used all along bestowed to verified people, like government officials, reporters, companies, so the public would know they were the real deal.  

📷 flockine on pixabay

But now the new manager decided to sell the mark to anyone.  Feathers started flying, cages were rattling, eggs splattered (some was even dripping off the new manager’s face!)  People couldn’t tell who was real anymore.  Bad actors came aboard with their purchased mark, and pretended to be the real verified humans.  Some of their messages were funny, some dirty, cruel, some totally misleading.  But there it was - total chaos. That was “free” speech for a price.

The fate of the birds is yet to be seen.  Beware:  birds of a feather sometimes can’t flock together!                  Theresa M

A bird does not sing because it has an answer.

A bird sings because it has a song. - Chinese Proverb

📷 GLady on pixabay