As you are reading this I hope you are experiencing a pajama day.
To me Boxing day is about sitting around in your new favorite pajamas eating leftover mashed potatoes for breakfast and watching The Sound of Music. I’m not one to line up all night at local electronic stores waiting for the door crasher special – for me it’s about the leisure and the leftovers (and the pajamas).
It is OK to have a day all to yourself, this is something that few of us do well. We scurry and rush and consume so much that we lose track of what is important. What is important you ask? Time….time is vital and precious and short and we need to grab it and hold on and never let it go. The idea of taking a day without cell phones, social media or running to and fro and just resting with your family is foreign to many of us. Take the day and read, read to your kids or your granny or just visit with friends.
I am telling you this with a stern voice….let the housework GO!
It isn’t going anywhere and people who are lucky enough to spend time with you DON’T CARE if you have dust bunnies in your corners. If they judge you for having a messy house you might want to start hanging out with more laid-back people. Just to clarify, I have not lost my mind and my designer diva instincts and good tastes are still intact but I can testify that my time with friends is more precious, dust or no dust.
Consumerism has spiraled out of control and I for one have watched with sadness the obvious slump in the economy that is driving people to buy more and more things they can’t afford.
We have lost the art of simplicity and down time and are increasingly looking to fill voids in our lives with uncontrollable clutter and noise. The time to eat leftovers, use paper plates one night for supper and have friends in just to play games and laugh is now!
The next best label or designer bag will not fulfill your need for human connection like spending time will.
My fiancée and I were visiting his hometown a few weeks ago and he wanted to drop in on some friends, no phone calls just stop by the farm and say hi. I was mortified! Who does that? Well, apparently in small town Alberta, they do. We drove up and honked, the dogs came running, someone came out of the house and the barn simultaneously and before I knew it I was sitting in a warm kitchen drinking Baileys and coffee. She kept trying to clear the table piled with bills but I didn’t care, I felt so welcomed by this family it wouldn’t have mattered if last night’s dishes were still there.
The time spent with these new friends was refreshing and fun as they ran to and fro putting on a meal, offering us their newly smoked beef jerky and keeping the coffee filled. It wasn’t fancy but it was fabulous and I learned a great deal about hospitality and being laid-back that day, even if I wasn’t wearing my pajamas.
Kim Lewis is an interior designer in Red Deer with Carpet Colour Centre.
