There are only five weeks or so left of 2022. How will you spend them?
You will very likely encounter some stresses in the next five weeks. Even though you might feel peaceful and stress-free and even get into the spirit --well, one can hope anyway -- it's pretty unlikely that everyone around you will, too.
Around this time of year, I try to follow the advice of my old guitar teacher, Obara-sensei, whenever I enter complexity: slow down. Play the piece almost ridiculously slowly. Exaggerate the slow down.
Get stuff done, sure. But get it done slowly and try to enjoy yourself in the slowdown. Lots of beautiful moments will present themselves. But if you're whizzing by it all, it's hard to catch them.
The key, as always, is to declare victory, no matter what happens.
If you're going slowly enough, you might notice you'll have time to luxuriate in, maybe even marinate in, the actual spirit of Thanksgiving. Can you want what you already have? If you can, you're like 90 percent there.
Who knows, this approach to the holidays may help you to actually enjoy them.
