Nostalgia
“a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place and time”
I’m not sure if it’s because of the time of year or what but the word “nostalgia” reminds me of Christmases from my childhood. As a child I recall them being quite joyful. I can remember how my oldest brother and I would sneak halfway down the stairs very early in the morning to get a glimpse of all the presents. One year in particular, there were so many presents they exceeded the perimeter of the tree…essentially taking over the whole room. Such joy!
Another year when we took a peak at the stash…nothing was there! Oh, the tree was there…but no presents. WTH! We snuck back to our rooms and waited to see if maybe they would show up later. But no, when we officially came downstairs…nothing…nada…zilch. My parents thought it was funny and told us that we must not have been good enough for Santa.
Thinking they must be someplace else, my brothers and I ran all around the house in search of the lost presents. Lo and behold, under a fake, silver Christmas tree in the basement, there they were. So on that cold, winter day, we all unwrapped our gifts in the basement…how festive (sarcasm intended). Just so you know, the basement was adequately finished…it was more of a play area for us kids…so it wasn’t like some dark, dank, musty basement you’d find at say, The Bates Motel, for instance.
Do I long for those days, not really because now as an adult I realize how much time and effort my mother put in to make it happen. She did all the decorating (I helped as I got older), all the Christmas baking (I’d help with decorating cookies), ALL of the Christmas shopping, and ALL of the wrapping! God bless her…and we never really thanked her for all she did…mainly because we had no idea of how much she did for us.
One thing I do miss are the Christmas trees we had each year. My dad would pick a big, fat tree that would sit in front of our living room picture window, and would stand as tall as the ceiling. My mom had such a great eye for decorating it, including the use of tinsel…I know that’s a love ‘em/hate ‘em thing with most people. For me I love the tinsel…my husband does not. So instead, we include some metal ornaments for the shiny effect.
These days, my husband and I buy living Christmas trees, usually about 2-3 feet tall which we plant about a week or two after Christmas. Essentially we’re staring our own Christmas tree farm in our yard.
So, when it comes to nostalgia, if we’re yearning for days long gone, we can always use our creativity to come up with ways to bring what we miss back to life in a more up-to-date way.
How about you? Is nostalgia a core value for you?
BTW…here’s what it looked like to begin with …
joyfully,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
🏵️ creating mandalas — awakening creativity
About the 2024 Mandalas of the Day
Each day I will create and post a mandala inspired by one of 366 “value” words chosen randomly. The objective being to discover for myself which ones would best represent my core values…and by doing so, I hope it inspires you to determine your own.
Mandala of the Day 