mermaidcamp

Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water

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Make My Day

November 20, 2013 — 8 Comments

Thanksgiving cactus

sky blue pink

sunset

When I think of an ideal day I have plenty of time and plenty of tasty snacks. The weather can be any way, but my awareness is high. When I think of the Thanksgiving season and the Black Friday vision of what is to come I become a serious holiday prepper. I am not preparing for the zombie apocalypse or the end of civilization, but for the temporary insanity of all the world shopping to be shopping. I am preparing to stay home, work very little, and dine in some fine establishments close to my home for holiday meals to savor, remember, and pay chefs to create. I will not find myself at Trader Joe’s, or any other grocer, the night before Thanksgiving because I will not need any groceries for my meal. I have what I need, reservations at Maynard’s. Situated in the old train station and across the street from Hotel Congress, this fancy restaurant gets rave reviews, and we have never tried it.

For our big December family gift to ourselves we are taking our coon hound to Scottsdale to her favorite hotel, Kimpton FireSky. She loves the dog centric customer service, and all the other guest dogs. We love to dine at Posh, right across the street. We will drive up for the improvisational cuisine and a break from being at home. There are many cute small businesses in Scottsdale that create a flavor in the old downtown that we enjoy. We like the art galleries and will probably hit a local farmers’ market or two while we are up there. It will be citrus and date season, and although Phoenix is no longer very agricultural, there will be some local products we don’t have down here in Tucson.

For Christmas Eve we have reservations to dine very close to home at Pastiche. This week you can buy gift cards at Pastiche that come with a 25% bonus. Next week the bonus goes down to 20%. I am armed with my $125 worth of Pastiche gift cards which I purchased for only $100. I am so ready to party. I am completely into the idea of doing no cleaning, cooking, or entertaining, other than inviting friends to join us out on the town. I used to enjoy a labor intensive, baking, crafting, decorating, cocktail partying holiday cheer. Now that is all just way too much effort. I appreciate the labor and creativity that chefs and restaurants can provide, while I take it easy and be grateful that there is no clean up after my nap.

Wish List

November 19, 2013 — 5 Comments

Wishing for gifts changes over time. The kinds of things we want and what we believe we will gain from them may become more complex, or more simple than in childhood. When giving gifts my style is to prefer to share an experience, like a meal, a concert or class. When receiving I am the same. I have so much physical stuff I can’t really imagine owning more. The burden of taking care of worldly goods eventually comes with diminishing returns. Sometimes we are sentimental about objects and cling to them because they remind us of a person, place, or event. Certain things we made ourselves are important beyond reason because they mark our proficiency at a certain time. Things require space and some attention. As we acquire more stuff and it all needs attention, we may be loosing something more than just usable space.

I was very impressed the first time I studied with the Dalai Lama of Tibet in 1993. He gave us Buddhist teachings as well as his own point of view. One of the outstanding exercises I have always remembered from that teaching was about acquisition. He said:

Notice how you feel about an object when you fist notice it and it creates desire in you
Notice what longing for the object feels like
Notice what your feeling is at the moment you acquire the desired thing
Check back and notice how you feel after you have owned it for some time

He wanted us to be aware that the thrill is usually much diminished as soon as the object becomes our own. After owning something for a while we notice that it did not give us the total satisfaction we had expected from it. This is called buyer’s remorse..it is also called attachment. So caveat emptor all you little elves out there; Once you have your thing you will have to deal with it and find a place to put it.