You Matter to the Hatter! :-)
2019 was a difficult year for many families as they lost loved ones. It was a time of turmoil for the country. If we can all celebrate on New Year’s Eve in unity then surely we can come together every other day of the year. 2020 has arrived!
May everyone experience good health, find happiness, practice self compassion as well as be compassionate for others. Most of all BELIEVE anything and everything is possible. 💕😊
Hold Steady!! 2020 is near!
All of the things you didn’t do, couldn’t do, wouldn’t do…..no worries!
January 1 is the beginning of a new day…a new year…a new decade!
It is never too late to begin again.
Start where you are.
Say to yourself “I Matter!” and get busy being the YOU that you want to be!
You and you alone have the power….it is a matter of believing you have it.
Start believing!!
Bye, bye 2019…..Hellllloooo 2020! Nice to see you! Let’s do this! 😉💕
~MH
Christmas tradition in our family included going to church on Christmas Eve to the candlelight service. We would then gather at my aunts house which was down the street from our house where she had prepared an actual program of activities. She played piano. We would sing Christmas carols, have dinner and were allowed to open one present. I loved Christmas.
I would wake up on Christmas Day and run to the living room to find Santa had eaten the cookies and drank the milk. There were always toys, dolls, bicycles, clothes and everything on my list. I can’t think of a time I asked Santa for something that he did not deliver. I look back at my early years and feel fortunate. Very fortunate.
My aunt still lives in the same house on the street where I spent the first 11 years of life. She is 84. We moved when I was 12 and traditions at my aunts house would be gone forever. We moved again when I was 13 and shortly after that my parents’ marriage dissolved. That would be the end of many traditions and the beginning of new ones.
I have continued to enjoy Christmas but for some reason certain Christmas Carols create tears. I have not quite figured that one out yet but I am sure it has something to do with the estrangement from my father and the years spent in church singing such Melodies. There is a void that can never be filled.
I do believe in Santa though and always will. Santa is always jolly and a giving soul and I always enjoy giving rather than receiving. When I was younger my parents would take me to get my picture made with Santa. There’s one picture where I am not happy. I am crying and I don’t know if I was scared or what was going on because I was too little to remember. I can only imagine I must’ve been terrified of the man with the white beard.
I get into the holiday spirit around my birthday which is the middle of December. Shopping for others and wrapping presents is the most fun! As Christmas Day nears, though, I am ready for a new year to begin. The holidays can be exhausting.
Everyone is running around trying to find that last minute gift. It’s Christmas Eve and I realized that I did not have enough scotch tape so about ten after five I went to Walmart and one would have thought the entire city was there. They closed at six. I was lucky to even find a roll of scotch tape but I found a couple and headed to the checkout lanes. I got out of there fairly quickly. As I was leaving the parking lot at twenty minutes until closing, there were still cars pouring into the parking lot. I hope they were successful in their search for the perfect gift. 
Christmas is highly commercialized and has been for as long as I can remember. I think many have lost sight of the true meaning.
I hope Christmas Day is filled with laughter, hugs and spending time with those who matter in your life. Those kinds of days seem few and far between. We need more of them.
Must go to sleep or he won’t pay me a visit. I believe in Santa. Do you?
Merry Christmas!! 💕
~MH
What are your goals? What do you want to do while on this earth?
Don’t wait until “tomorrow” to start creating a ‘bucket list’.
Do it NOW!
Don’t wait until you have enough money.
Don’t wait to retire.
Don’t wait for a sunny day.
Don’t wait until a better mood appears.
Don’t wait until the kids grow up.
Bucket lists do not have to be extravagant. They can be simple.
Maybe you like to fish, go camping, hiking.
Maybe you like to travel.
Maybe you want to take singing lessons, sing karaoke, learn to dance, learn piano, learn to cook, learn a foreign language, sky dive, scuba dive, write a book.
Maybe you work all of the time and want to take a vacation. The list can be endless.
It is YOUR list.
Create the list and then take action! Don’t wait!
Partner/Spouse does not share what’s in your ‘bucket’? No worries. This is YOUR list. Things YOU want to accomplish. Let nothing/anyone stand in your way.
I learned years ago the only way to have no regrets is to live my life for me. I do things I want to do and while it would be nice to share my passions with another I will not let their absence keep me from living life. You shouldn’t either. I have known people who wanted to take adventures but their spouses would not go. They lived in resentment as they say they didn’t get to do things they wanted. I say they should have gone anyway. Two people don’t have to be attached at the hip!
I am currently in Key Largo completing my travels through The Keys of Florida. A nice journey it was and nice to check it off the list! ✅
I have twin boys and one likes to travel and has a more flexible work schedule than the other so he went with me. We don’t always want to do the same things or even eat the same foods but we compromise…..or not! Lol!
Please share something you would add to your bucket list and maybe by this time next year you will have it checked off before life passes by and time runs out…….because it will.
~MH
Just when you think you aren’t worth a darn thing is the exact time to say to yourself:
“I matter!”
“ I am worth all of the gold in the world!”
“I am a good person!”
“I deserve better!”
“I AM worth it!” 💕
If you need convincing, reach out!
I Care. Let’s Talk!
Make today a good day!
~MH
Today my wish is for peace, forgiveness in our hearts, love for all mankind, listening to others without judgment or persecution.
Make it a good day!
~Mh
We made it! December is my favorite month but not because of Christmas. December is my birth month. It is also the last month of the year which means a new year is approaching! I can shed all of the yuck from the past year and start fresh.
I don’t look at this time of the year as turning a year older. I tell my kids every year they’re getting older and I’m getting younger. It is the meaning we attach to age or any event in our life that determines how we feel.
How can you view your situation different today and begin anew? If you’ve been thinking the same way for many years, and we all have, change it up!
We have the ability to change the way we think. We just don’t know how to do it because we never knew we could and we don’t do it every day. Once we start doing it every day it becomes natural and then it becomes automatic.
When faced with a challenging situation we most likely fill our thoughts with all negatives, misfortunes, disadvantages, losses, etc. I assure you there is at least one benefit, possibly more, to the circumstance. It is clouded by all of the limitations and problems we can easily see. Start by listing one positive outcome and more will follow. If impossible is the only word that comes to mind, please reach out and allow someone to assist with discovery of the bigger picture.
Our own perspective is our reality. This, my friends, can also be our worst enemy.
Don’t wait until the new year to make change. Time is ticking. Do it today! A new you IS on the horizon. 💕
~MH
My eldest son and his girlfriend came by last night and helped put the lights on the tree. I always like to have a tree up for Thanksgiving. It helps me get into the spirit of the holidays.
Each year that passes I see my kids finding their way in life, growing into the adults I prepared them to be. I am so very proud of them. What I wasn’t prepared for was being alone. I always thought I would remarry after my divorce. That day has yet to come. Not sure it ever will.
Each Thanksgiving I wake up, put the turkey in the oven and watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade. My kids come over about 12:30 for lunch and possibly stay long enough to watch football then they are off continuing their own journey. I give thanks for their health and cherish time spent with them knowing each year that passes is one more year closer to the end of mine. They will say goodbye with a loving hug and I will sit and reflect on how it used to be when they were younger. Time has flown by……too quickly.
Being alone has it’s pros and cons. I focus on the pros as much as possible.
I control the remote!
I do what I want when I want.
I control the money…my money. 🙂
All kidding aside. Being alone does not have to be all bad. It’s all in how one thinks. My life did not turn out as I planned. It is what it is. I move forward with less planning and more doing.
I love to travel.
I like capturing moments in pictures.
I like listening to music, especially the music I grew up with. I am more focused on the lyrics now than I was then.
I am a MFFL and for those of you who don’t know what that is……Mavs Fan for Life! Go Mavs! 🙂 If there were no basketball, life would be so boring. Lol!
I started walking again. Fitness is important. Find the motivation to get moving.
Being alone has always provided me the opportunity to get to know myself. I have even learned to love myself! That is something most people are lacking and is the root to some of their troubles.
Holidays come and go. They are not here forever. It is a stressful time of year for many, especially those who spend time alone. I at least have my kids for a visit. For that I am grateful.
Stay off social media as that can be a source of added stress during this time. I have learned to roll past what I see and hear on social media and not let it affect me because I know people pretend they are happy when in fact they are not.
Make this Thanksgiving Day a day that you are thankful for YOU and all that you are and let everything else fall into place as it should….and will. 💕😊
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
~MH
Please be aware that there are bloggers who put content other than their own on their blog and do not give the original composer credit. Some are even selling items with quotes and have attached their own logo. This will catch up to them eventually.
It’s very easy to google the quote or a phrase in their post and find the original composer.
Please report this if you know it is happening.
Please help keep the integrity of blogging.
Seven to eight years ago I remember being unemployed. I had never had trouble getting a job and I would have taken any job but could not get hired for even $10 per hour because I was ‘over qualified’.
I would see/hear people complaining about working on holidays. During that not so wonderful time in my life I silently thought “I wish I could work for these people who do not want to work”.
Retail stores are now opening on Thanksgiving and people are complaining again that they have to work. Even people who are no longer working are complaining about others who have to work.
What is all the fuss? I get it but I would like to provide a different perspective.
We always want our lives to be better, easier, more convenient. We do not take the time to realize it could be so much worse.
Holidays are a time to spend with loved ones but I can tell you that if a job was lost, a career ended or one was ill and could not work then holidays would not be pleasant.
Working in a hospital I see so much sickness; people who can’t work, lose limbs, go on disability, go home on hospice, receive cancer diagnosis with poor prognosis and the list goes on and on. Many do recover to go home and continue living. I have the most compassion for those who don’t.
Throughout my journey I have met many people who literally have no family. I continue to meet them. They are walking through life alone. That must be tougher than working on any holiday.
It is now the time of year we give thanks to all we have including the people in our lives. If we have a job and are able to provide for our basic needs we should start there and be thankful.
If we are lacking work perhaps we could be thankful for our health, our children, family, pets and our friends. Family can be anyone and everyone we want it to be. Let this time of year be the time to define family.
If life finds us weary, sit for a bit and do nothing. Reflect/regroup on where it is we want to be/go on this journey and start anew. Be thankful for the ability to start anew.
When I was younger I worked retail for over a decade and I worked many holidays. I probably complained a time or two as well. We were closed on Thanksgiving but opened early the day after. I always worked that day.
If people do not like the environment where they work they need to look elsewhere. Reinvent themselves.
As I began a family raising small children working every holiday and working late nights in retail no longer served my purpose and that’s when I made a change. I made a lot of sacrifices and that’s what a lot of people don’t want to do with regard to change. We all have options yet for some reason we always feel like we don’t. We would rather complain about what we don’t like rather than work towards finding happiness with what we do like. I chose the latter. Finding myself unemployed years back I made a change again and went back to school to get a masters degree in the direction of hopefully never being without a job. Only this time I found my purpose, my passion in helping others. My journey continues.
Hotels, hospitals, police/fire departments, airlines, restaurants, gas stations are all open on holidays.
Let these retail places be open on Thanksgiving. The one thing we shoppers CAN control is going shopping or NOT going shopping on Thanksgiving day. If no one shows up to buy anything perhaps they will rethink being open next year.
Society has created these holidays. We should not wait until one specific day rolls around each year to be thankful and spend time with our family. We should do this EVERY day!
Most importantly……be thankful another Thanksgiving Day has arrived.
~MH
I Care. Let’s Talk. 