An Early Christmas Gift

It’s a week before Christmas and the gifts are all either here or on their way. Soon, I’ll finish the photo albums and goody boxes I’m assembling as gifts for family members, and then my husband and I will begin wrapping. Lots and lots of wrapping, because I really enjoy the finishing touch gifts bring to the Christmas tree.

This morning as I settled in for a day of “last minute Christmas gift browsing”, I checked in with Facebook. A former coworker, from the time before I became a full-time writer and stay-at-home mom, proudly announced to Facebook that he, his wife, and his little boy are enjoying a no-debt Christmas…and my day’s plans clouded over. Envy sank into my stomach because I can’t say the same for my family and our holiday this year. We’re coming out of lush times and heading into lean times, but we have been spending like we’re still enjoying the golden period.

We have attempted debt freedom in the past and we started this year in good shape, but lost sight of our goals. Or we didn’t fully embrace our goals in the first place. Today I realized I need to stop and take a breath and remember how to enjoy the leaner days ahead. Ordinarily I would bury my head in the sand and say “we’ll start on January 1,” but I don’t want to be that person who wakes up on New Year’s Day with resolutions and vows and the amount of debt that can still be accumulated in the two weeks that remain in the year.

More than not wanting to be that person with resolutions and vows, I don’t want to be that person who recklessly disregarded the opportunity provided by these last two weeks of 2013. I started the year with goals I haven’t met and I started the year without some of the bad habits I’ve picked up along the way. Write, Love, Save is a gift to myself - the gift of remembering what I want out of the minutes, days, and years of my life.