How Much Do We Really Need, Anyway? - from Family Christmas Online^TM

Granted my "want list" has always been pretty short. When someone who wants to buy me a gift asks me what I want or need, I have trouble thinking of anything. When I do think of something, I rush to write it down so I have an answer the next time someone asks. Otherwise, it is quickly forgotten and I'm at a loss again.

I am also aware that things will always need to be replaced. Despite my hope that underwear falls under the heading of durable goods, very little we own lasts forever. Clothes, shoes, towels and sheets do wear out. Dishes do break. Pens eventually run out of ink.

I do love quality and beauty. But the old things I love for their quality fabrics and wood are only found used in the places where I love to shop on a regular basis. There is always a thrift shop or garage sale that is an easy stop on my way to the grocery store or a doctor's appointment. And we live only a few miles from one of the biggest and best flea markets in the country. If a needed or wanted item isn't there today, it will be on a later stop. And the fact that items are purchased for pennies on the dollar makes my frugal heart sing.

I will confess that there are two items on my "want list" that I never acquired. In my twenties, I wanted a jeep. Now I can afford one but am too old to want to climb in and out of one. And the Irish Setter? When I realized how much they shed, I chose to admire from afar.

Which is really the point of this article. We don't have to own a thing to enjoy it. Often, the thing we thought we wanted takes too much to obtain, then too much to maintain. It is always wise to not let our possessions, even those for which we waited a long time, consume our lives. It is just "stuff" as we tell our children.

So enjoy that which comes into your life. Just remember we take nothing with us when we leave this world. And no one ever regrets what they didn't possess.

Oh, and that "thing" I acquired? A French laundry basket to hold our worn out towels. The ones that really do need to be replaced!

May God bless you and help you to be a blessing this holiday season.

- Shelia Race

To return to the Christmas Musings page, click here.

To return to the Family Christmas Online^TM Home Page, click here.