Christmas Observations

Found this Elf Roasting Marshmallows. I grit my teeth, and I took the kids to the mall yesterday for some Christmas shopping. I pulled into the mall parking lot without a wait, which was a surprise as it was a Saturday. Last year there was a line of cars backed up half way to the corner with people waiting to get into the mall. I thought I just happened to be there at the perfect time, lucky me! (It was about 1pm, I thought it would be really busy.) Anyway, I got into the mall parking lot and fully expected to have to drive around for 10 minutes to find a spot. Nope, I found one within about 10 seconds! Another whew! My jaw line was relaxing a little, gritting just a bit less. BUT, I knew once I got inside it would be mayhem. I hate big crowds, lines etc. However, the kids had asked to shop with each other, and I had said yes. I must demonstrate follow through, no matter how much I didn't want to do this. We went into the mall through a department store without having to duck and dodge anyone. There was a line at a checkout of about 5 people, but the rest of the store had just a little more than a few shoppers. I was expecting bumper to bumper people. As we made our way into the mall depths I saw shoppers, but no real lines anywhere to check out. As we did our shopping there were several stores that we were the ONLY people shopping in! Of course there were busier stores too, but even in those stores the longest line was only 3 or 4 people deep. Not too bad! The food court had no lines to speak of either. So, you may surmise from my ramblings that this is going to be a state of the economy type post. Nope. Although I think the economy has seen better days for sure, there is something more to this, I'm pretty sure. Call it a gut feeling, or whatever you want. There is definitely less of the typical Christmas "spirit" in the air this year. If you sit quietly and just relax, you can feel the energy all around you. There has been a dampening effect on the whole scene this year. I'm not sure why. You can feel it though. A lot of people are not bothering to "find that perfect gift" this year. They're sending money, gift cards. It's just too much work to shop for someone. Are we all that jaded? Has retail run it's course? Do we all have everything we want / need? (the answer to that last one is YES!!!!) But, why this year have we suddenly realized this? Why not last year, or the year before that? We've all had plenty of "stuff" for some time now. We are weary. We want to simplify. We want less stuff to burden ourselves with. Are we becoming enlightened a bit, or are we just tired of being bombarded with the notion that we need glitter to be happy? I hope we are waking up. I hope we are seeing that baubles are not what make a happy life. Why spend all that money on the newest version of an XBOX, when there is a perfectly happy back yard to play in? And the kids will have more fun, make more friends, be healthier, and have more memories playing outside in the neighborhood. I do think there is a collective consciousness, and I think we all connect to it on a subconscious level. Some people can connect to it on a more conscious level. Maybe connect isn't the right word, as we are all a part of it. I guess being aware of it more so than others is what I mean. Anyway, something big this way comes, or maybe has arrived and is in play, we just are not aware of it yet - consciously. I do think we will go through some hard times getting wherever we ultimately need to be, and we may not see the other side of this big thing in our lifetimes (those of us over 40). But, in the end I think it will all work out for the better. Who knows! Just noting some observations here, and Merry Christmas!!!!!!