My family members have been sharing photos of their Christmas decorations. Their trees are up, their lights are strung and their pets have special, Christmas-related attire. I, on the other hand, don’t decorate for any particular season, including Christmas.
Where's My Joy?
Am I just lazy?
On top of the shelves in the living room, I do have an angel whose color changes as her light changes, and I do have a carved Santa from Germany on one of the lower shelves, but these decorations are both out all the time no matter the season. So, I wonder why I don’t feel the need to decorate for each season like the majority of the world. My easy answer is that I'm lazy. I don’t want to put stuff up only to have to take it down later. I don’t want to expend the energy I have on doing that – that doing does not bring me joy.
However, I do find joy in other people’s doing – their decorations, their bright and cheery attire. I smile whenever I walk or drive by the purple house that is always decorated appropriately for the current season – Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The purple house residents really rock the seasonal decorations in a big way that I do not.
In Other People's Doing
Why would I want to?
I love that my neighbors have white lights strung around their front porch and that they have an inflatable Christmas dinosaur. Other people’s lights, ornaments and greenery bring me joy, so it’s not that I’m a Grinch. Unlike Grinch, I don’t want to steal joy and stuff from others. I don’t want stuff at all. So, my not decorating isn’t just because I’m lazy. It’s also because I don’t want to collect things. I enjoy the open spaces my home has to offer me … the spaces that are spaces because they are not filled with stuff.
My sister came over recently to help me rearrange furniture because I got a new table (yes, this is a thing, but I wanted another table for board game playing) with seating for six people. She said the table set didn’t look as big in the show room as it does in my living room. She added that it’s like when you choose a Christmas tree in the wide open spaces of a Christmas tree farm. The tree looks like just the right fit for your room until you get it home and have to chop off a good bit of the trunk so that you can put the angel on top.
Will That Fit?
Where is the space?
She needed to come over to help me rearrange things because where I had planned on putting the table set was definitely not going to work – and chopping off the legs was not going to improve things (smile). We moved every piece of furniture in the room to new spots – some pieces moved multiple times.
When we moved the sofa, I surprisingly let out a huge sigh of relief and danced in the space it opened up. I didn’t realize how much its being where it had been was inhibiting my joy of the space. Sheez! The sofa had been there for almost two years; how did I not realize how uncomfortable its place in the room was for me?
This rearranging of furniture reinforced for me how important open space is to me. I realized I don’t collect stuff because it takes away my freedom to breathe and dance.
Breathing and dancing freely are integral to my joy year round.
On the Refrigerator and Dishwasher
Can I win?
I attended an end-of-semester celebration earlier this week. A couple friends and I played a “Decorate the Tree” game where you rolled a die to determine which colored ornament you could put on your tree. The first time I played, ironically enough, I won by getting all the ornaments on my tree before my friend.
After I had won, she finished decorating her tree and handed it to me saying I needed two trees to take to my home, which was sorely lacking in decorations. She knows me so well - LOL! Now, I not only have my “Christmas tree” table and seating for six ready for the holidays, I also have three decorated trees hanging on my fridge and dishwasher. The bonus is these trees don’t take up any of my breathing and dancing space!
The “Christmas tree” table is here to stay, but those decorated trees will be gone as soon as Christmas is over. Throwing them out will remind me to do some more purging before the year ends.
Opening up more space in my home will open the opportunity for an abundance of joy to enter my life in 2024, and then when I die, whoever has to clean out my house will have less to do because I’ve already de-cluttered.
Sending you the kind of space you need to breathe and dance your joys,
Angela Jane