* Spend time with old people in nursing homes, especially those who have no family. Spending time caring about another lonely person will go a long way toward taking away your loneliness!

* Volunteer to help with serving food to needy over Thanksgiving and Christmas. Many churches and other charitable organizations welcome volunteers to help in food lines over holidays.

* Locate a retreat center near you that has a special event over holidays and share your time with other people who are also alone for holidays. Last year a friend of mine, who had just left her husband and was alone for first time with no family around her, went to a beautiful retreat center on East Coast. Twenty people gathered there to share Thanksgiving together. There was a wonderful ceremony of gratitude that she said filled her heart, and she enjoyed sharing time with new people.

* Find a church, temple or 12-step group in your area that has special events for singles over holidays. Go to these events with intention of sharing your caring with others, which you can do just by being interested in listening to another person. We all love being listened to and understood, and all of us have capacity to give this to another.

One of my all-time favorite movies is “A Christmas Carol,” – one starring Alistair Sim. I just love scene on Christmas morning when Scrooge realizes that no time has passed and he has opportunity to give. He feels such joy at prospect of giving, that he can hardly stand it! He dances around and stands on his head and laughs and laughs with joy of giving! In one night he went from being a miserable old man concerned only with getting, to a man now focused only on giving, and he became a joyful person.

While you might not have money to give, we all have caring to give. You have no idea how much you might enrich your own life as well as another person’s life just by giving your time, your attention, your interest, your smile, your understanding. Whatever your life circumstances, you always have opportunity to give your caring. You will discover that giving your caring to others, especially over holidays, is a profound way of caring about yourself.

We know it's hard, but go through your drawers and closets and purge things that are never worn. Putting laundry away is much faster and more pleasant if you don't have to struggle to cram clothes into an overstuffed space.

Set a side a small drawer or basket for socks that have lost their mate in wash. Sooner or later other sock will turn up and pair can be put away with all others.

Other Laundry Tips Consider sprucing up and organizing laundry area. A clean and well-organized space makes any task more enjoyable. Schedule set laundry days and stick to them. It's amazing how much more you can get done when you have a schedule.

Short of inventing disposable clothes, laundry is here to stay, but these tips should make it quicker and a little more manageable and you will never have a morning with nothing to wear.

©2004 Bridget Messino