Lessons I learned from my mother
On not saving things for best
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We’re past the halfway point of the first month of 2025 and for me the start of the year has so far been a lot of freelancing and juggling (in that ‘feast or famine’ way that freelancing can be at times).
But I’m not complaining. Despite writing this on what has been dubbed ‘Blue Monday’, I’m feeling a lot of gratitude right now.
January can certainly feel like a long month, especially in parts of the world where the days are grey and short at this time of year.
And with the current state of the world it’s so easy to feel helpless and hopeless.
As well as doing what we can from where we are to support and promote positive change, something else we can do is find ways to live more fully. That doesn’t need to be anything grand (though of course it could be, if you choose). Instead, it can be in little things day to day.
Speaking for myself, one thing I do is this:
I don’t save things for best.
It wasn’t always this way.
It was my mother who changed my outlook.
When I was growing up, I remember that Mum did ‘save for best’. And it wasn’t just her – I noted her peers did this too. So maybe it’s not surprising that this was a practice I absorbed without any thought.
It wasn’t until sorting through my mother’s belongings after her death that it became starkly clear how many things had been barely used or not used at all.
What is ‘best’?
After all, each day that you’re here and breathing has meaning, however mundane. However bad. However grief-filled.
So, if you don’t already, why not wear that thing you love when you’re just hanging out at home?
Use that scent you like so much whenever you feel like it.
Light that fancy candle.
Get out your best plates for beans on toast.
Whatever it is you’re storing away in a cupboard for an unspecified special occasion some time in the future, ask yourself why?
In the grand scheme, possessions may not matter – they can be lost or destroyed and we can’t take them with us to the place that we will all go sooner or later. But, I find these little actions that can inject a bit of simple joy into our days are not to be underestimated.
And that does matter.
Over to you:
Have you learned anything from your parents via something they did or didn’t do?
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