I smiled all the way to the end. You guys really set your parents up and then end up getting the celebration, the tree decorations, and gift unwrapping for Christmas. It's amazing how Kids often find a way to get their parents to do their bidding.
And your mum was right, all you needed was to go to church, celebrate the birth of Christ, and be grateful for the little that you have. But of course, I don't blame you guys as the era of consumerism swept you guys off your feet.
I appreciate your boyfriend for that gift, I guess it quenches your hunger for the remaining part of the movie.
I would love to comments on every part of this memory lane of yours but I'll leave it here.
I love this!!!
Thanks for sharing. Compliment of the season, Ma. ❣️🎉
:) Thank you.
I think appreciating what you have is not something you do for granted. People mostly learn to be grateful when they are deprived of something they took for granted, experience the opposite of comfort. I perceived my mother's upbringing less in her words than in seeing the contradictions that she herself did not always recognise. Her strong rejection of "evil" seemed to me grounded in her overly strained efforts at being good. As a child, I was irritated by this but did not know how to put it into words. Since she constantly violated being good, at some point I no longer took this zeal seriously. Everyone violates it and therefore we are all sinners and the pursuit of the ten commandments is an impossibility. :) Which doesn't mean that you have to leave them to the side, just not to make a murderer's pit out of your own heart if you were lacking in them.
My parents, however, were consistent in their own lifestyle and that probably taught me most of it. It was less my mother's missionary zeal than her lived joy in her Christian imprint, such as singing (she sang a lot and often, I remember hearing her voice from upstairs in my room, it gave me a feeling of security), her funniness and humour that I was able to welcome with open arms. She knew so much poetry and songs, it was great! She wrote a lot of letters and she painted occasionally. I liked this part of her much better than the grim and sour-tempered one, who was always escaping the dictates of goodness.
I was also impressed by the congregational work and the funeral rituals and the singing in the church. The coming together of Christians when someone has died is very powerful.
❣️