Tag: pressure

Dare I Say it? Bah HumBug

~ JodiLea

Let me explain.

Every year I worked my butt off to make the holidays happy for all. Everyone loves Christmas, yet nobody wants to help decorate the tree, make food, go shopping, clean the house, prepare the bedrooms for visitors, or write Christmas cards.
It is exhausting, thankless, and stress-ridden. I started to dread the holidays. I have enough to do without getting on the holiday hamster wheel. I felt guilty and Scrouge-like. Christmas is in your face starting in October. Even if you don’t go into retail stores, radio stations play Christmas music starting the day after Thanksgiving. Some of them play holiday tunes ONLY for the remainder of the year. You see Christmas displays, sale signs, elves, Santa, and toys everywhere you look.

Television advertising is annoying enough without the jolly jingles and mini-stories geared to tug at your heartstrings and your wallet. Hallmark once produced emotion-provoking ads that entertained. These seemed to have gone to the place where clever Super Bowl ads went.

While studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses, I learned why they do not celebrate Christmas. I won’t go into details here, but there is a good article on JW.org that does *. That year was the best holiday season ever. Why? I was free to not get involved with the holidays at all. No one expected me to do anything. My family still celebrates Christmas, but I don’t have to.

Click HERE to learn why Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas*.








Resolutions: Renouncing Your Flaws

~ JodiLea

ThisYearIWillQuit  New Year’s Eve:  The night you are expected to give up something, to gain something else that you are pressured into wanting.

Let me explain – We are pressured to stop smoking (or whatever) by family members and well-meaning friends. Our smoking (addiction) comforts us, and we don’t want to give it up. We know that smoking does horrible things to our body. We know how expensive cigarettes are because we have to buy them. We have tried to quit before, and things went badly.

We are afraid to face life without smoking (or whatever).  We need to smoke – to feel calm, balanced and non-homicidal.  That is your frame of mind before you go to the New Years Eve party. Then when you are caught up in the moment, you (loudly) declare you will finally quit smoking. Everybody claps and cheers and you blush and take a deep bow.

You wake up and it’s January 1st. You may or may not have a hangover, but you are dragging butt just the same. Morning coffee and a cigarette will get you right again. Suddenly, you remember that you vowed to quit smoking, while dramatically tossing your last pack into the fireplace.  You curse yourself for wasting cigarettes like that.

You manage to stay quit 2 more hours before running to the nearest 7-11 and buying a few packs. Possibly some chocolate also, to help ease the guilt of letting yourself and others down. What a depressing way to start a new year!

That is why I will not make any new year’s resolutions tomorrow. (Is that a resolution?) I want to start the new year off positively.

And I need to figure out how to do that – by tomorrow 😉

Stay tuned….
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photo credit: Lester Public Library via photopin cc