I didn’t send Christmas cards this year. Time just got away. Unworthily I savored the greeting of those who managed the season with more alacrity than I. Snowy scenes, puffy birds, pop-up Christmas trees, wreath and bows and drifting flakes, beautiful families and their children smiling out a me – they rested in my grateful hands before I propped them against candles, balanced them in garland or coaxed them to stand on their own on the breakfast nook table. Then – the problem. It’s time to move on. But how? How do you toss a message of peace, love or even the milder Season’s Greeting into the same receptacle as the detritus from two week’s worth of mail or the mess you cleaned off the pantry floor? Tough, tough, tough. Guess you’ve just got to move on. I used to save the cards that had a special appeal. Do you know what that habit produces after 40 years?
Time to move ahead – in so many way. The days are lengthening and with the promise of Spring perhaps those greeting card embers that pushed back at the solstice gloom – perhaps it’s a little easier to release them as the year moves ahead. The trick is not to look after them as you drop them into the waste basket – just keep looking up – moving on.
7 comments:
I love the photo of all the Christmas cards, forlornly lying around. I keep thinking there must be some creative use for these cards, but haven't come up with it yet.
I totally agree--keep moving on. No need to go back. By now, folks won't remember who sent cards or not (unless they are anal and keep a list).
I agree. Stuffing cards in places where they won't be seen for years is not very helpful. Appreciate them and pitch them , say I.
I'm embarassed to say what I do. I keep the really nice ones or those with a special message (for what I don't know - until next year I guess), but the rest I put in the trash the same day they're received.
(Cowering with shame)
Good advice Cathy. How'd you get so smart?
For many years I found it oh so hard to throw a card away. Sigh! When we moved last year I had boxes and boxes of them that finally went in the trash, and I thought how silly I had been to keep them all these years. So now, store bought cards are enjoyed for the moment and pitched. Hand made cards are a bit different though. Original artwork or pictures are kept in albums for sure.
I've still got valentines, Taraz and Megan's wedding announcement, birthday greetings, thank-you notes, and Christmas cards sitting on shelves in my den. They hold such sweet sentiments, I cannot bear to relinquish them. In fact, I still have the tiny floral greeting card my mother gave me when one of my children was born, over 23 years ago, pinned under a bouquet of silk flowers on my bathroom wall. "You are in my thoughts" is written in her careful handwriting on the front of the little card. She passed away ten years ago.
Ah, my blogging buddies - aren't we wonderful - struggling to find our way - to gracefully address the small as well as large issues in our lives.
Bonita - I do have a couple drawers filled with the too-precious-to-part-with cards. What is it about a mother's handwriting? My own and my mother's are so different - I love hers and have kept many tender notes that she sent over the years.
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