A well-meaning conservative politician that I follow across the country from me, finished off her latest mini-rant by asking if Trudeau will be ruining my Christmas. My immediate thought was, “No!”. Christmas in our house isn’t tight because of government idiocy, but instead because of lost jobs earlier in the fall.
Craft fairs are helping pay the bills this season much as they did back in the fall of 2019.
Shop local and support fellow crafters and local small businesses. This not only keeps more of your money in your community, but it ensures you aren’t caught by the Canada Post lockout, the Montreal port lockout, and other delivery interruptions as well.
Businesses can support each other in much the same way. Instead of relying on out-of-town shipping methods, or imports that might get stuck at a dock or warehouse, buy from other local businesses, use local courier services to send stuff across the region, etc. In one way, I hope that the recent ill-timed shipping lockouts of various stripes have given small and large businesses alike, a wake-up call that they should have been dealing with local suppliers all along.
There’s no reason to wait for government to force shippers back to work. Go local and put Christmas dinner on the table of a local small delivery driver instead.
This MP’s rant I was reading told the story of a postal delivery worker who’s husband just died due to inability to afford his medication. Now this worker is worried that her life insurance policy may also have been cut off by Canada Post, and is wondering how she’ll pay for end-of-life costs for his proper burial and affairs.
I don’t know this man’s condition or what medication he was taking that cost so much. What I do know as a Natural Health Practitioner, is that there are herbs out there that God has given surprising capabilities to, and I’ve written about them from time to time here on my blog. Stories like this postal worker’s risk getting me very riled and very angry! Manmade medication reliance has killed far more than just her husband, and most of the time, with full access to it! It is possible that there may have been a selection of herbs in the right delivery mode (tea, oil, extract, etc) that could have helped her husband. But without being able to reach out to him, and not knowing how to reach this postal worker, any information she may give any future natural health practitioner will be in hindsight. Hindsight isn’t without benefit to those in the future who could avoid the man’s fate, but it won’t help the postal worker or her household.
Perhaps, after the concerted effort the string pullers went to great lengths to enforce in lockstep to make as many people as unhealthy or dead as possible over the past 5 years, the best gift that could be placed around hearths, in socks on trees or under them,
would be the gift of natural health!
In my store here on my site, you can find household and equestrain trail kits, my nutritional/medicinal database (spreadsheet style), my monthly retainer, a couple books, and ways to provide others with access to a natural health practitioner as well. I make the trail kits 90% from scratch and need to source local options to buy the remaining 10%. The books are delivered from Quebec as affordable options are not yet local to my area, (delivered from the East Coast of the US if you are in the USA) and the rest are delivered electronically, or in the case of the kits, ideally delivered in person but they can be shipped via courier for extra cost while Canada Post is disrupting things.
No, Trudeau isn’t making our own Christmas difficult this year, but he is for others out there! Don’t let him ruin yours either by shifting your focus as to what you’ll buy from who, and even why you’re buying it. Christmas isn’t about what we buy. Gift giving was instituted at Christmas as a way to live out two things: The Gift of Salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord, and the gifts the wisemen gave Him when He was 2 years old in Bethlehem after they spotted His star the night of His birth. We give gifts to each other in remembrance of these two historical and very present facts.
The gifts we buy don’t have to be flashy, dazzling, or expensive. They simply need to be appreciated, useful, jogging a memory, or creating one. If you don’t have anything to wrap them in, take some newspaper and use that, or carefully take apart a paper bag along it’s seams and use that with some string to hold it closed. No string or tape? Make some glue on the stove top using flour, water and salt (recipes all over the Internet) and glue the package closed. Make a hobo-style package by placing your gift in the middle of a large piece of something foldable, gather it up around the gift and tie a bow to hold it all closed. Link together twist ties to do the job if that’s all you have on hand. Gift-giving is often said to be from the heart and that its the thought that counts. If you are using paper bags, feel free to decorate them after you’ve flattened them or before you fill them (if using as is). Get out paints or pencils or crayons or stickers or glue and sprinkles and have fun creating a one-of-a-kind package for the gift you are preparing to give.
If the person you are giving your gift to is across the region and won’t be coming for Christmas, offer to pay someone to drive it across town for you. Maybe if you know a postal worker out of work, offer to pay them to do a private run for you. Maybe it will prevent another death this Christmas.
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