Sue’s Weblog

‘Tis the season of holidays.  I hope that yours have been wonderful, and that you’re taking the time to really enjoy them.  I hope also that you’re staying healthy.  Here in Petaluma there’s a cold that’s been going around, bringing a deep cough to everyone’s chest.  
Some of my therapeutic grade essential oils will help, if you are coughing too.
I found that this time of year is a good time to do a lot of nothing.  Going out partying on New Years is fun, but also often requires that you use up a lot of time and gas on the road, where other people are often already driving drunk, because it’s the season to be jolly……….and some of us take it to an irresponsible extreme.
We decided that it would simply be easier and smarter of us to spend our money on fun when we’re awake enough to enjoy it,  (I’m an early sleeper) and when it’s easier to get to it, with less risk of becoming an unpleasant statistic, on the way.
So maybe we’re collectively a stick in the mud.  On the other hand, my son is going to be well again, in time to go back to school, when it opens again, because he’s getting time to recouperate from the viscious cold that was going round.  I’m getting time to write this blog, and my husband got time to sleep in, this morning. 
We’re also getting time to accustom the new pair of pet rats to our presence.  We decided on rats because we knew that we needed a low maintenance pet that was cuddly.   So in between needing time to recouperate, we’re doing what works for us, and just not being too hard on ourselves, in these winter months.  By being too hard on ourselves, I mean that we’re not demanding of ourselves that we go out and party on New Years Eve, just because it’s what everyone else is doing, or because it’s a tradition.
I even stayed away from my Mom’s Hannukah party, because I knew that I was over-tired, and getting sick.  I would dearly have loved to go, but that would have been putting a lot of demands on myself.  I would have had to dress up, and be cheerful, when I really wasn’t feeling like it.  I also would have ended up making others sick.
Winter months are a good time to s_l_o_w   d_o_w_n.  Sickness is often your body’s way of telling you that you’re doing too much.  You’re overprogrammed.  You need to do a reality check.
Are you keeping a calendar?   Does it look cluttered?  Have you scheduled in down days?  Did you really take the time to get over your last cold?  Do you really need to see that person, or did you just schedule that person in because you felt obligated to see them?  What could you eliminate from your calendar and not miss? 
Don’t go trying to eliminate that check up with your dentist or your doctor.   That’s cheating, and it’s not the way to get your life less cluttered. 
Take care.  Have fun.

Sue.