Nurturing Your Own "Grand" Spirit

I have a few treasures, my favorite is a Frosty Snowman Bank that my grandmother gave to my father when he was 5 in the 1930's. My father would place Frosty near the tree every year, my brothers, sister and I would all put pennies in it. When Frosty was full, our parents took us downtown to see the window displays. We would take all the pennies and donate them to a Santa collecting for a charity. I continued the Frosty tradition with my children, donating to our Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, Frosty was broken in a move a few years. I cried when I found him in pieces. Very carefully I glued him back together, and repainted him. Frosty is still a treasure, even though he is too fragile to continue the tradition of accepting pennies. So, for my granddaughter, I have placed a holiday candy jar next to Frosty and we still take the pennies to a worthy charity.

Writing is a great way to rejuvenate your spirit. Journaling is simple, just start with a daily thought, blessing, or memory. You can write as little or as much as you wish. For myself, I started by keeping a positive happening of each day. I've graduated to writing a worst part and three positives things that happened each day. The bad things rejuvenate, because I survived them, ending with the positives - shows me the good in life is still with me. Consider writing a yearly family newsletter, concentrating on all your good immediate family news and events of the year. Keep a copy in your journal and make copies to send along with your holiday greeting cards. Your friends and family living away, will have a glimpse of what you, your children, and grandchildren have been doing all year. In someway this helps you feel closer to the ones you can't spend the holidays with. After the holidays consider writing your own biography, it could be a simple 2 pages or expanded to include events of your life year by year, or stage by stage. Consider your auto biography as a written record of your life for future generations to learn about you and the times you lived in.