Traditions

It's an amazing phenomenon that occurs without any conscious attempts to make it happen. It's called a tradition.

You know what I mean: A child asks for a peanut butter cookie cake for their 10th birthday and, if they decide that they want the same thing the next year, it becomes the expectation that there will always be a peanut butter cookie cake every year for the child's birthday. Even once they're not a child anymore.

Traditions can add the excitement of anticipation or can be a dreaded repeat of times best forgotten. Every family has one and the other.



A Different Type of Goose

 In our home, we love having Thanksgiving multiple times each year within a 4-day span. We have a quiet actual Thanksgiving day, sometimes with my parents, sometimes alone. In the past, we've done the whole festival of food on Wednesdays as that was our day off of work and when we could celebrate with our daughters, my stepdaughters. And, to keep the expansion of the waistline on a steady, uninterrupted course, we'd celebrate with the girls' grandparents' family.

The number of meals consumed this year will remain the same, but, not as they've traditionally happened in the past years. As our day off of work is no longer Wednesday, we're doing the whole shebang on Friday with the daughters. We'll enjoy the company of my parents on Sunday instead, so that we'll be to have a leisurely day with which to close the weekend. As for Thanksgiving day, we're doing something completely different, as we're going to have a delightful dinner and football-and-wine day with two wonderful friends.

I'm looking forward to these changes. I'm looking forward to still being able to give thanks with my parents. Gathering the kids gets tougher every year as they strike out on their own, which makes those rare get-togethers even better. And being blessed with good and true friends is just as great a reason to celebrate as any of the others.

As for those events which you might hate having to deal with, keep this in mind: if it's okay to start new "traditions", it should be okay to abandon others which become a negative in your life. If you can step out to create new ways of doing things, so can the others on their own. It might seem selfish to pull away at times, but there comes a point in maturity where you need to treat yourself to more joy than pain. Pain will always find you. Joy, you often need to seek.

Give yourself permission to seek joy.

A tradition should be a comfort within your own world, not an obligation to inflict discomfort on yourself. So go and start a tradition for you and yours that celebrates only happiness and contentment. You've earned it!

                                                          

Speaking of traditions, a few of my good friends and I have established parties throughout the year and we were just treated to one of these last weekend. It was a celebration of Harvest.

Over the last 7 years, she and her hubby have had a wine party in November which is always fun. The reason I bring this up is to pay tribute to the influence that this event has had on my creating this blog and inspiring my personalized artwork.

**********



The Final Product
Painted from Mike's Photo
of the St. Lawrence Seaway

 The first set of personalized wine glasses that I made (and, I think, the best to date) were made for the 3 fantastic women (and me) who make up this particular circle of friends. If not for this new "tradition", the idea of creating this type of art may never have occurred. Of course, it also helps to have the type of friends who inspire you as well!

The courage to pursue the art and to attempt to market it has come from so many different sources. My husband, my parents, friends in my current life, as well as those in my "past" lives. It's taken a lot of gentle pushing to get this "bull" moving, but as last, she is.

Inspired by a tradition! Thank you all for the joy!