Just enough

There are a lot of things that I dislike about the holidays (you can call me a Scrooge). I think the main thing that bothers me is that we use the holidays as an excuse to be our worst selves instead of our best selves (myself often included). We turn these holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah), days that are supposed to be joyful celebrations of finding just enough when we thought we wouldn't have anything (finding some friends who will share their food, having light when it seemed there would be none, finding a manger when there was no where to sleep) into a free-for-all for inexpensive towels on Black Friday and a month and a half long sugar-blast. Every year around the holidays, Americans go into debt and eat ourselves fatter and sicker than we were the last year in celebration of holidays that are meant to remember finding just enough to get by on.
As I was on my way home from 14 degree run this morning (which was penance for too many cookies and bit too much punch yesterday), I was thinking that perhaps the holidays need a little more discomfort so we appreciate the comfort. One of my favorite things is having a well-earned breakfast and curling up into a warm bed after a nice cold twenty miler. The contrast between the cold and the struggle (and working up a genuine hunger) makes appreciation of the comfort of bed and the treat of warm food so much better than it could ever be otherwise. Practicing restraint and engaging in some mindful discomfort leads to so much more enjoyment on the rare occasions that we do indulge than when we shove things in our mouths with abandon and buy anything and everything just because it is on sale.  When we have too much of everything, it gets really hard to appreciate any of it.