...I have enough

I'm hiding out at home today. Going nowhere near any retail
establishment. Today is one of the biggest shopping days of the year.
In close proximity are the day after Thanksgiving and the day after
Christmas. Seems like we as a nation can't get enough. We want so
much we can't take a day to enjoy the things that have been given us,
we're right back out there the next day.

I spend a lot of parenting lately on the concept of we have enough. I
would even say we have too much, but that is post grad parenting. To
be fair, I have to spend a lot of time on reminding myself that I
have enough. My husband is worried I won't have anything under the
tree. I have enough, and I've already had my Christmas. I got my
trip, and I got a phone, which is allowing me blog mobility, of course
I want more. I want lots, but I have enough.

As I was reminiscing about Christmas past, I tried to remember gifts
I'd gotten as a kid. I remember when I got my first watch, my grandma
got us all one when we were in second grade. My sophomore year I got,
not one, but two puppies. The only other vivid Christmas memory is
the year it didn't happen. I was in the fourth grade and my dad spent
Christmas in the hospital after being burned in an oil field accident.
My mom had to deal with six kids and hospital visits and probably
wanted to have her husband enjoy it with us. Us older kids were old
enough to understand, the younger ones too young to know the day. I
don' remember what I got that year, other than more time with Dad.

If I never got another thing in my life, I'd still have more than
billions of others on this planet. It seems wrong and selfish of me
to want more when three hundred dollars could build a house for a
family in some parts of our world. I've been trying for a couple of
years to limit the kids to three gifts, my friend gave me the idea
that the kids shouldn't get more than baby Jesus. I failed again this
year.

So as the new year approaches I'm going to resolve to do more and get
less. Shopping will no longer be a hobby. I will try not to buy
anything on a Sunday, as to observe a Sabbath. I will make do with what I have. I will do this because I have enough.