Four more sleeps, and feeling so grateful

This may be a bit of a sappy post, but since it's my blog, and I don't really care if anyone ever reads it except for me a few years down the road, I'm going to indulge and blurt.

With Christmas only a couple of days away, and the only plan in the works for that blessed day to pack for my upcoming adventure, I have to think about how many people are stressed about the holidays.  In fact, I almost allowed myself to be stressed about spending Christmas Day alone, yet again.  So many times over the years I have spent the bulk of the holiday season at home alone.  It's a difficult time for so many people, and in past years, I have allowed it to be difficult for me, too.  But this year, I have opted to approach it a bit differently.

Many times over the years I have envied those blessed with monetary wealth and their ability to celebrate the Christmas season in the style that I would so have loved to celebrate.  With lots of decorations in a big fancy house with lots of people around all the time, food and wine overflowing, lots of parties, plenty of gifts for everyone and maybe even a few for me.  The past few years Christmas has been spent largely on my own, with only a couple of gifts for my closest family, and simple meals with modest decorations.  Mostly what I saw was what others had that I didn't, instead of seeing what I had that others didn't.

Perhaps it is the reason that in the past few years I have chosen to travel at Christmas time, to avoid feeling "left out" by choosing to leave others out.  Perhaps it has been my own way of celebrating the season and giving myself the ultimate gift of freedom.  Perhaps by cherishing the ability to travel, the willingness to explore the world on my own, and sharing my experiences in my photos and my writing, I am giving others something that they don't have.

So this year, as I prepare to embark on another journey, I am reminded of how many people look at me quite differently than I see myself.  How many people might actually envy me for being able to go somewhere new and different, for not having to spend days shopping and wrapping and decorating and baking and entertaining and the stress of trying to visit all the relatives and the exhaustion that follows.

This year, I'm reminded to feel grateful for all the gifts that I've been given, not just this year, and not just for Christmas.  For all the gifts that I haven't ever had to unwrap, that were never put under a tree or in a stocking, they have just been there all along, but I didn't choose any of them so they are gifts all the same.  I am ever so grateful for:

           Wonderful and loving parents that are still fairly healthy and independent, and still married after more than 60 years.
            An amazing, beautiful, very intelligent and caring daughter who has been blessed with a loving husband and two adorable, bright children
            A large family of very good people
            Countless supportive friends that are good and decent people
            Citizenship by birth of a free and respectable country
            The ability to earn a good living
            The health to enjoy the benefits that a decent job affords me, like travel
           
There.  Maybe some year I will also be blessed with a special someone to lovingly share Christmas Day, but for now, I'm feeling like packing for a trip to New Zealand isn't such a bad way to spend it.