Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday, where gratitude continues to be the focus of my writing at the start of every week, which for today is for the friends who helped my partner Chris and I take down all our holiday decorations.
My partner presently has a very sore back. He’s due to undergo the knife in a few weeks to remove some bone spurs that are affecting a bundle of nerves radiating down his legs. He’s struggling to lift anything now, let alone walk for even the shortest of distances. Typically, he and I in past holiday seasons have spent a good day or two taking down all the festive decorations we put up, but given my own health limitations and combining in his own now, for what was already a very arduous process in years past was looming over us as an even greater one.
Thankfully, our friends Denise, Jeremiah, and Kyle lent their hands in the matter and helped Chris and I take down what originally took us close to 40 hours to put up. All in all, the entire clean-up process took the five of us only 6 hours of time, which left me feeling exceptionally grateful, especially because I’ve been feeling so very down and disconnected over the past ten months or so, continuing to believe a lie that no one cares about helping anyone anymore.
And while Chris and I always feel that higher level of energy and excitement that comes from putting all the holiday decorations up as it gets done over the course of several weeks prior to Thanksgiving, we always have this sense of dread looming over us when the end of the festive season nears, as to when we’re going to have to put the time aside to take it all down. In year’s past, sometimes we left the decorations up well into late January because of this.
Last year, we pushed ourselves to get it done on New Year’s Eve and Day and even with the help of one person extra last year, it took every bit of steam out of us. But this year, the process didn’t feel overwhelming at all, as Chris organized everything quite well from the chair he sat in, while Denise, Jeremiah, and Kyle fully supported me in all the physical tasks, especially with much of the heavy grunt work.
So, with much love and gratitude, I’m dedicating today’s Grateful Heart Monday to our friends Denise, Jeremiah, and Kyle for helping to end our holiday season with a much lighter feeling. I truly feel supported because of this and that alone is most definitely something to have much thankfulness for.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
