Here in the UK, Christmas is upon us \u2013 or so the advertisers and retailers would have us believe. A visit to some of your local high street shops will give the impression you need to do your shopping now. To encourage us further, there are discounts for buying early \u2013 to help the retailers more than for our benefit. Should you be unfortunate enough to have to watch TV adverts without being able to fast forward through them, there are already numerous ones with Christmas themes. And we are still in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently I spent a couple of weeks working at a company office. I visited the canteen on a daily basis and chatted to a very friendly person there each day. I asked him how he was (or something similar) each day. On the Tuesday of the second week he replied, \u201cBetter than yesterday, because we\u2019re one day closer to Friday\u201d. \u201cDoes that mean that Wednesday will be better than Tuesday?\u201d, I responded. \u201cYou\u2019ve got it\u201d, he replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He continued with his work as we chatted. I thought I was starting to understand his rationale, but I needed to test it to make sure I understood it. \u201cSo, Monday is the worst day of the week \u2026?\u201d I asked. I paused and he nodded, \u201c \u2026 and Saturday is the best day of the week?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo!\u201d, he replied, laughing \u2013 \u201cFriday is the best day of the week\u201d. I hadn\u2019t expected this answer. \u201cSo why Friday rather than Saturday?\u201d I asked, inquisitively. \u201cWell\u201d, he responded, \u201cSaturday is one day closer to Monday, which as you now know is the worst day of the week\u201d. I pondered and then sought to clarify my understanding. \u201cSo even though you work on Friday and not on Saturday, and obviously look forward to the weekend, you look forward to Friday more than Saturday?\u201d. \u201cYeah, you\u2019ve got it!\u201d, he said with a big smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought for a moment, and responded, \u201cDo you ever live for the moment?\u201d \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d he said, slightly quizzically. \u201cWell, do you ever just enjoy the moment, whatever day of the week it is, without thinking too much about the future or the past?\u201d He stopped \u2013 not only talking, but his work. As he stood absolutely still, his eyes were focussed far into the distance. About 10 seconds later, he came back to our conversation. \u201cThat\u2019s brilliant, that \u2013 I\u2019m going to try that\u201d, he said with a decisive tone to his voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s where I think we are at with Christmas \u2013 and it\u2019s almost a fight now to be able to live it in the moment. I remember being in Barcelona a couple of years ago during the week before Christmas. I was sitting in a coffee shop in a shopping centre by the Port. I watched two young women \u2013 late teens or early 20\u2019s \u2013 sitting wrapping all the presents they had bought that afternoon. They were having so much fun, and putting so much effort into making curly ribbons. They were oblivious to everything else around them. It was an oasis of Christmas fun with a retail backdrop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether it\u2019s Christmas or some other time or event, how often do you live for the moment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here in the UK, Christmas is upon us \u2013 or so the advertisers and retailers would have us believe. A visit to some of your local high street shops will give the impression you need to do your shopping now. To encourage us further, there are discounts for buying early \u2013 to help the retailers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30],"tags":[251],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}