Black Friday Shame

I'm so embarrassed about the behavior of my fellow Americans. Each year it gets worse. Each year the shopping season, also known as Christmas, creeps closer and closer to Thanksgiving. This year it invaded Thanksgiving as many stores opened on Thursday evening.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is a day for family, it is a day to remember all our blessings and take time to give thanks to God. It's a day to feast, visit and rest. It is also a day when businesses are mostly closed, people don't have to work, buy or think about the cares of day-to-day life for one day.

I mean how desperate are we to buy one more thing? To beat someone else to the sale? To sacrifice our dignity, our compassion, and possibly our safety on the altar of materialism?

How I wish every single person in the United States would've boycotted the stores on Thursday. Can you imagine? All the stores that planned for sales on Thursday, forced their employees to leave family and friends to sell stuff and try to control the crowd, imagine if they were empty. Employees standing around staring at each other, their steps echoing through the empty isles. Ah, the image makes me smile. Maybe after that they never would've opened on Thanksgiving again.

But we Americans love to buy. It's now our national duty to buy and keep on buying. We must feed this insatiable monster inside us that continues to grow. And we won't stop until people are killed in the mass chaos of it all.

Then we'll have legislation that will help us control the beast within. The federal government will have to limit how stores offer sales because the people can't be trusted to control themselves.

Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit.

Lord, we need more of your Spirit.

I wanted to put a video with this blog, but I can't bring myself to do it. If you want to see the horrors carried out by your fellow man this weekend, check it out on YouTube. There are plenty of videos from all over the country.

If you'd like to see our family's attempt to avoid Black Friday, check out my husband's blog, "What I Love About Black Friday"

Minimalism = Maximum Effort

I'm in the beginning stages of cleaning house. I'm not just talking about sweeping, vacuuming and wiping counters. I'm talking about the pull-everything-out-of-nooks-and-corners-and-get-rid-of-clutter kind of cleaning.

We've been in our house for about 15 years and all of us are keepers. We don't let go of things easily, especially books. I've been feeling like the walls are closing in on me for months, maybe years.

"Clutter is a state of mind. It can be the things we haven't done which prey on our minds, like unreturned telephone calls and appointments not made. . . Everything we do not use or wear, or which we are keeping in case it comes in handy one day. . . For one reason or another. . . we hang on to situations and ideas which do not let us move on. . . All these attitudes clutter our thought processes but by clearing out our physical clutter we see the benefits of 'letting go', which will help us to clear out the mental clutter restricting our development." Excerpt from the book FENG SHUI: Mind & Body; Spirit & Home, by Hale & Evans, page 82.

I love clean, open spaces. They make me feel like my spirit can soar. And I know that if my hands are empty, God can fill them. But it seems to take so much time to keep up with the clutter, to throw or give things away as soon as they enter the house. I feel guilty because something was a gift or it holds a certain memory, or I'm just not sure what to do with it, so I set it aside and put off deciding what to do with it for later. Yet holding on to all these things becomes oppressive and later the task is bigger.

FENG SHUI tells me not to try to tackle the whole house at once, but it's weighing on my mind. I try to do one room at a time, but that leads to another because if I move something from the bedroom to the family room, I must make room in the family room for it.

Another question I have is--Where do I keep all the stuff I want to give away until I have time to take it someplace? Oh and--Where do I take it?

Here's a before & after picture I found on the internet. 

Which one invites clear thought and enjoyable play? 

So today I struggle with this elephantine task. I hope to report success by the end of the year.

How do you tackle cleaning out? Or how do you stay on top of it every day?
I'd love to hear your experiences and tricks.

Phytonutrients Could Save Your Life

"Phytonutrients play perhaps the most important part in preventing cancer and heart disease." ~Don Colbert, M.D.

"Phytonutrients are . . . highly protective against heart disease and cancer." ~Andrew Weil, M.D. 

What are these miraculous nutrients? 

They are plant compounds that come from fruits and vegetables. Phytonutrients are what give fruits and vegetables their color, flavor and scent. And they are naturally disease resistant so they help your body fight disease.  

So how do we get more phytonutrients into our bodies? We eat more fruits and vegetables.

You thought I was going to suggest some expensive supplement or juice, didn't you? 

There may be some of those products that add phytonutrients to your diet, but they are not as effective as adding more fruits and vegetables. You see God made the things we need. Given enough of the food God made, and told us to eat, we will have what we need. 

Obviously in today's world of technology, our food, water and air have been polluted, which is what makes it difficult to eat right. I don't claim that any of us can avoid all things that cause cancer or heart disease, but we can help the situation by being mindful of what we choose at the store. Organic produce is always better since you avoid the pollution of chemicals used as pesticides. Choose brightly colored produce. Eat whole, raw, or slightly cooked fruit and veggies as often as possible. And eat LOTS of different varieties, in all the colors God has created. 

Enjoy your phytonutrients!