The 5th

God’s endless love contradicts the world and upsets all its pretentious meanings. The world seeks glory, honor, pleasure, pride, freedom from suffering, greed, hatred, resentment...But the God-Man chose utter poverty, insults, torment, ridicule, hunger, and thirst.

Catherine of Siena

I've made a conscious effort to move away from the more commercial side of Christmas to concentrate on keeping it simple; focusing on family, community (church, work and local) and simple pleasures. Finding joy in the small things has made me more content.

Today I found joy in sharing a meal with my family, I was thankful for my husband doing a few small jobs I'd asked him to (it means his mental health is good) and I felt helpless about night shifts cutting short the time I have with my children.

Scripture
By the tender mercy of our God,
    the dawn from on high will break uponaus,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luke 1:78-79

Live More Simply

I have a house full of stuff I don't use. Clothes I don't wear, books I won't read again, DVDs I don't watch. We still have boxes in the loft which remained unpacked from moving house nearly 8 years ago. Why?
At the moment, with little to no time for housework, it just feels like "stuff". I often wish I had time to remove everything from my house and only put back the things we really need, but when I do attempt to throw things away a "just in case" mentality creeps in and I worry that as soon as I throw something away I'll need it.
There are probably very few things we're hanging on to that we need and my main goal when my training ends is to declutter the house from top to bottom, inside and out.