Support4Change Blog

December 15, 2008
By Arlene Harder, MA, MFT

SUGGESTION NUMBER 4 FOR A MORE ENJOYABLE HOLIDAY

After watching the news tonight as cars slid across highways, I decided to use this snowman for an illustration because he looks so cheerful. Perhaps he’ll come and clean your driveway so the repairpersons can bring electricity to your house. (Yes, I know “repairmen” is not politically correct, but don’t you find it still a little strange to have to remember to use this new terms?)

Having come from the East to sunny Southern California, I sometimes miss snow, but about two weeks would be enough for my bones.

Thanks for Your Wishes

I want to give you my sincere thanks for the kind wishes and prayers for my recovery that so many of you have sent me. I think they have helped! It has been almost four weeks since the back operation and I’m already doing better than expected. Exercising several times a day and walking a little more each time. I intend to keep improving so that by next summer I will be able to walk a couple miles without difficulty, By December of next year I hope to walk for three or more miles and take the trip to the Galapogos Islands and Machu Pichu that we had had to postpone this year.

If you’ve read the page of Pictures-on-the-Wall Series, you will notice that for the past several months you could find fairly frequent updates to the blog. While I had intended to have every-other-day entries through the end of the year, I didn’t get quite as many done as hoped. Now that I’m working on the Better Tomorrows Program, which I’ve now scheduled for launch on Feb. 1, the entries have slimmed down considerably.

However, I’m hoping that since these weeks of fewer blog messages coincide with the holiday season, you’ll be too busy to miss me. (Well, that’s what I tell myself.)

Don’t Forget to Celebrate the Year That’s Ending

Every year I remind my readers that it is easy to run so fast from one year into the next that we don’t appreciate what we’ve gained in the past 365 days. So this Monday’s suggestion is that you read an article on Support4Change called Celebrating the Year That’s Ending. There you will find suggestions for how to move comfortably from one year to the next.

For example, for those of us who are pleased with the elections, we can create a way to appreciate what was done to make that possible. For those who don’t like the results, you can look at what might have been done differently and how you can make those changes in the future.

Even if you don’t actually plan a celebration of 2008, I think it’s a good idea to be aware, somewhere in the back of your mind, that there is much for which to be grateful even when looking forward to better times in the future.

Don’t Forget Next Monday

If you’ve been paying attention to the blog, you will know that every other Monday there is a special feature. This week it’s on the holidays. Next week it will be the last preview exercise of the Better Tomorrows Program called “Prepared to Learn How.” And even if you don’t plan to participate in the program, you will find that the exercise fits in very nicely with the last holiday message of Dec. 29.