Christmas Time

It's Christmas time in the city, that city being NYC. It really is a beautiful time of year here in NYC.

The NY Public Library Tree

We have so much to see in the city, between Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Rockettes, and the Macy's window displays. It really is a beautiful time of year. People are nicer, the weather is cooler, the energy is amazing.

I generally review my year and do that typical annual post. But what am I really reviewing? I don't post a lot anymore, I don't write much anymore. I have had such a high-standard of writing that I never could live up to. I wanted to be more consistent, more inspiring, and more connected to my readers. Of course most of my readers are my family, and I'm pretty connected to them already. So I have learned a valuable lesson this year.

Write when I have something to write, not compelled out of an obligation.

-john mann-

I have tried to be consistent and then I get a little frustrated when I don't have something to write about, or I get busy and I skip a day from writing. And then I don't write for months and give up on that consistency. I would beat myself up for not keeping up with my writing goals.

I think we all do that. We want to workout EVERYDAY, or write everyday, or do something every week, or whatever it is. I think we need to let that pressure go and simply allow the energy to come when it comes. Energy moves through us and it is truly an ebb and flow. We have good days and bad days. We have extra energy and are tired at times.

We are not required to be happy every day and every moment. We need to accept the bad days and moments. We need to learn from them and grow. It is when we fight our feelings do we get frustrated. When we learn to embrace our anger, our sadness, our joy, and our happiness, we learn more about ourselves and who we are. We appreciate so much more when we work for things through the painful moments.

We learn so much more when we have an experience tied to a strong emotion. I see so many people wrapped up in their phones and missing out on so many opportunities to connect with the people around them at that very moment.

I think technology should be used to touch base, but not as a primary form of communication. I see the irony as I write this on a laptop for the web. :-) I want to connect to new readers and then meet them. The joy of deeply connecting with people is so amazing. It is a lost art to connect. We have so much fear to connect, fear of what? not sure, but it is crippling at times.

Connecting with others

Imagine riding the subway and saying "Hello fellow riders, I don't know any of you but I'd really like to meet you and hear your story. I don't want any money or food from you, just an honest conversation about who you are."

How would you respond to that? Would you bury yourself deeper into your phone? Would you be afraid that I'm a crazy person and worried for your safety? Would you come up to me and introduce yourself?

I know that this a Christmas post and I think that ties into what Jesus would do to connect to all people. I know this is usually a tech post, but I want to simply write, not write for profit, not write for any other reason than to share my thoughts.

I have recently updated some plug-ins here and removed ads from this site, because it became annoying and deterred from what I want. I want to build relationships and connections that simply want to connect, not take something from me, but simply share their life story and talk about things over time.

That's all I have for today. I am not holding myself to a great article, an amazingly well-edited piece with click-bait, ads, and whatever marketing tactics to get you to read. I'm sharing my thoughts. That's all.

Merry Christmas and I hope you have a WONDERFUL holiday season.