Is This What We Really Want?

It’s official — holiday season is upon us!  And whether this is the time you look forward to all year long, or each year about this time you find yourself avoiding malls and parties, few people would deny that modern society has taken the holidays and just about secularized and marketed the life out of them!

The time of year our stores are bursting with cheaply-made tinsel and blow-up life-size Santa’s made in China.  Baked goods loaded with white flour, white sugar, and worse are baked, purchased, and given in abundance as gifts to people who might do better to abstain from the excesses.

Families go into debt, moms everywhere stress themselves out, and those with depression double up on their antidepressants to face the onslaught of what we are told the holidays should be.

Don’t get me wrong — I love the holidays!  The smell of turkey roasting in the oven, the nostalgia of seeing ornaments I made as a child up on the tree, the spirit of generosity that many choose to embrace, and so much more!

This year — even more than years in the past — I will ignore the mass hype and make the holidays my own.  I want to enjoy all the best of this special time of year and forego the parts that are not for me.  Can you relate to what I’m saying?

What I Want for the Holidays This Year –

This year, as every year, I want my focus to be on spending quality time with family and friends.  Our relationships with the ones we love are worth more than any riches under the sun.

I recently made the commitment to go off wheat and sugar at least through the end of 2012.  So this year, more than in some other years in the past, healthy and delicious foods are my priority.  Why do I need to indulge in foods that make me feel sluggish, gain weight, and put me at risk of losing my health as I did many years ago when there are so many delicious foods I have access to that will give my body life?!

This year I will make wise purchases for loved ones and for my household.  We will mostly be focusing on preparedness items.  On the list are water purification and storage, more food storage, and a gun for my husband.  We are already well-stocked on essential oils, or those would be on the list as well.

We will put up a tree and a string of lights, play some Christmas music favorites, diffuse Christmas Spirit essential oil, go see “The Hobbit” when it comes out, and enjoy some of the fun aspects of the season.

We will give to those in need — I am banding together with my parents and sister to anonymously give money to a single mother we know who could really use the extra cash.

And last — but most importantly — I will focus on nurturing my spiritual connectivity to God.  I will offer my prayers that November and December 2012 be a time of peace on earth, and that as we move forward into 2013, more and more people awaken to the messages of liberty, personal empowerment, responsibility, and preparedness, and love of one’s neighbor.

It has been said that if we don’t make a plan for what we want to go, we can never get there.

My prayer for each of you, my readers, this holiday season is that you will make this season a time of joy, reflection, renewal, generosity, take the time to map out what that looks like for you personally, and then make it happen!

Happy Holidays!

 - Julie =)

P.S. Here’s a great recipe for Wild Rice Stuffing from Hallelujah Acres–

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Statements made about the essential oils that come in the Essential Oil Survival Kit and other products offered by Essential Survival have not been evaluated by the FDA.  These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.  Anyone suffering from disease or injury should consult with a physician.

Last updated by Julie Behling-Hovdal at November 19, 2012.