Family doesn't feature as large in my life as it does for most people - largely because I haven't got one! I've never married and my only sister died four years ago leaving just one son who now lives in Belgium
But I delight in my friends. Friendship is one of the great pleasures of life which we can have without major expenditure.
Around Christmas time I think a lot about my friends. Cards arrive, many with letters inside. It's fashionable to deride the round robin letter but I love 'em. Most people write their basic letter and then add a personalised note on the bottom and that way I hear about the grandchildren of people whom I first knew over forty years ago. No-one would want to write as many individual letters or if they did, they would just be scant notes.
So my frugal pleasure today is friendship, especially those friends I have had for yonks and the news of whose lives plops through my letterbox at this time of year.
That is so lovely. I suppose the saying 'you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family' springs to mind. I live near close family but we don't live in each other's pockets. We see each other every few months for a catch up. We text or whatsapp from time to time. I too look forward to those letters inside the Christmas cards from friends far away. The news is not always happy but it is gratefully received.
ReplyDeleteIn the last year and a half I have come to a new appreciation of friends and it is sometimes surprising who those friends turn out to be. My family will always be first and foremost to me but the friendships I have rekindled as well as new ones are a very close second. I always had a very close family so the need for friends wasn't so great but in the past few months I have learned how really important they are -- sometimes more important. Lovely post, Mary.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying your list of frugal pleasures! There are so many in life, yet commercialism has made great attempts to blind us to so many simple blessings. Oh, and I loved the bird photos. Your Goldfinch is so striking, and quite different than our American Goldfinch (although ours is pretty too!)
ReplyDeleteSomehow it hadn't really occurred to me that each region will have its own garden birds - a pleasure that's the same everywhere but different everywhere as well
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