Recycled Christmas Cards

I'm sending out my Christmas cards. First, let me tell you about my cards. Every year, i recycle the Christmas cards i receive by cutting off the message half of the card and throwing it away. I keep the picturesque part of the card, which now looks like a postcard. The following Christmas i send these Christmas "postcards" to my friends. I really enjoy both the recycling of the cards and the saving of several dollars by not buying new cards. Recycling is another form of voluntary simplicity--simplifying my life by not buying more paper products, by not going shopping.

Sometimes, i even send the postcard back to the person who send it in the first place. If they liked it once, they might like to look at it again.

These Christmas postcards mean i have to write my own message. Here's the one that i'm using this year:




  Happy Holidays and a healthy New Year!

You recognize these wishes as loving-kindness in disguise. The essence of what i'm writing is May you feel happy. May you feel healthy. Two commonly-used loving-kindness phrases. Sometimes, i'm writing this on a card whose message is Peace. May you feel peaceful is another traditional loving-kindness phrase.

Christmas-card writing becomes another opportunity to practice loving-kindness.