December 23rd. Business as usual for people today. We took the kids on a bus to a big store (we call grocery stores ‘big stores’ now, as opposed to markets and street vendors, who sell a smaller variety of goods, but at far better prices). The bus was fun. My favorite part was the older gentleman and his son who were playing guitar and tambourine, and singing loud and clear on the bus for us. And the hardest part was hauling all of the groceries home. Thank goodness Merle came with me! He is so strong, and can carry his weight in groceries. Good thing too, because we bought a lot of beer!
It was interesting to me that business should be open all day today, with such an important holiday tomorrow. One would think it should all stop and rest, if the holiday is so important. But it doesn’t. So then I was thinking perhaps this Christmas stuff is contrived – in our minds, and created as reality because of what we believe. (We watched Zeitgeist a couple of nights ago, so that is rolling around in my head and contributing to this, I am sure.) I guess that is true, to a large extent, because different people have different celebrations. And everyone is always creating what they believe to be true. It made me wonder what kind of celebrations the world would have if we all listened to our hearts rather than to the (possibly contrived) information that our egos (are taught to) believe. What are the ‘true’ celebrations? Or are there any? Maybe there are things to be celebrated every second, but we are too distracted to notice? I will try to notice more.
I was feeling a bit homesick today, but not for home. Home is covered in snow and very cold right now. I was missing my family and friends. Especially Mom and Dad. Christmas really is about family, and I sent you lots of love; I hope that you got it. I wish you were here. I wish I could afford to send you all air tickets to be here with us. If I could, I would.