100 Days of Wonder – #76
The stories we tell ourselves and each other are remarkably powerful. That power can be both positive and negative of course but they’re always our stories and they can always be retold. Our Christmas tree is full of stories. Here’s a picture of it. Tinkerbell at the top, Disney baubles galore….
The tree, or rather the decorations because it’s a real tree, tell the story of mine and Kath’s life together. Every decoration means something and one thing is added each year. So the tree tells the story of the first Christmas in our house nearly 19 years ago with 2 cattens that required sacrificial baubles strategically placed. It tells of our first Disney trip and all the ones that came after as we made our own tradition of buying a decoration from the Christmas Shop in the Magic Kingdom on each trip. There are stories of friendship and memories of friends who should still be here but died far too young. There are stories of childhood and our pasts and futures intertwining. Most of all there are stories of us finding ourselves. Our tree is a story of the complexity of who we are. It’s Disney, it’s kitch, it has some classy bits, some expensive bits, some old, some new, some bought, some given to us, it’s past and future and it’s always full of joy and wonder. It feels like our Christmas tree is a strong reminder that we have found our place in the world, that we no longer feel any need to conform to any expectations or norms, that we are comfortable with who we are and that we no longer care what others think. Maybe we’ve been like that for a long time, I’m not sure. But decorating the tree, talking about the baubles as we placed them, laughing, acknowledging the sadness of some memories and the joy of others, it felt like we are exactly who we we’re meant to be and that’s a great privilege indeed.
100 Days of Wonder – #73
Here’s me in September 2017 on a sun lounger at the Contemporary Resort. It was 31degrees C and I was a very happy Jess. This wasn’t my original plan for today’s photo but it feels like I need to remind myself that rest and escapism and hopefully some warm sun is coming.
We’ve just got back from a lovely few days in Hamburg but I wouldn’t call them restful and our return journey was made more stressful by motorway closures which meant a detour into the unknown and significant delay getting home.
I was looking for a photo that would make me smiles, give you all a break from Christmas stuff and provide a promise of warm and calm. I can almost feel the sun on my skin looking at the photo and finding it and writing this post have made me pause long enough to remember that I don’t have to log onto work email tonight to get ready for the work day tomorrow- that’s tomorrow’s job. Tonight is just about enjoying my evening off, reflecting on the last few days, getting more excited about how close the Disney trip now is and getting to bed early.
Happy Tuesday Evening.
100 Days of Wonder – #71
Happy 2nd Advent
Happy 2nd Sunday in Advent. To the Magic Kingdom tree picture I took, I’ve added Disney tree number 2, a tree from Wilderness Lodge. I have seen a few pictures of it online recently and it always looks magnificent. I re-watched a documentary about decorating the Disney parks for the holidays the other day and was again struck by the detail and effort. Christmas decorations are refurbished annually, there are so many individual touches that are perhaps not necessary and so many corners that could be cut… but they are not.
I think for me Disney World is always a reminder that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing right, with attention to detail and proper pride in doing good work. I think sometimes we, or certainly I, rush from task to task and am focused on getting it ticked off the list that ‘good enough’ is all that matters. In many ways that is a good thing. I have way too much work to not work on a good enough principle but that should not take away from some things taking more priority than that. Which are the good enough things and which are the doing it right things will vary between us and over time. There is also joy to be found in perfection, sometimes more so than in just getting things done.
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