Facing The New Year Without Fear

At the end of every year, we naturally reflect on everything that has happened and make resolutions for life improvements going forward. We mourn the loss of people who have passed during the year. We rejoice over accomplishments and victories. We make note of all the important events and wonder where the time has gone. It seems the year just began and now it is at an end. Did we do everything we set out to do during the year, or did we let our goals fall by the wayside? Was it a good year? Or did our luck take a turn for the worse?

Yuletide Blessings!

Celebrate the return of the sun, the gradual lengthening of days. Enjoy the stillness of a light snow falling, the flakes dancing through the air with grace. Breathe in the scent of Yule logs burning in the crisp winter air that caresses your face. Embrace this slumbering time of renewal as it readies us for the coming of spring.

Niagara Winter Sunrise – Photo by Doug Hagadorn
Used with permission via creative commons

Who Built The Pyramids?

Through evolution we have become the most advanced humans to inhabit planet Earth. We crawled from the primordial goo and learned to walk upright, we went from finding shelter in caves to living in modern homes in the suburbs, we developed language and art and medicine and technology. We are the dominant species. We’ve come a long way since the time of our ancestors who were primitive, barbaric, and stupid compared to us. Right?

Now I’ll paint you a different picture, taking into account what’s called the myth of progress: “Human beings today are in all ways superior to human beings that came before us.”

Paying It Forward

For most of my adult life, there have been people around to catch me when I fell. I wouldn’t be where I am now without their help. Some I’ve lost touch with and others are still here, but my heart is filled with gratitude for each one. Even though I may never be able to repay them all, their names remain fixed in my mind like words permanently etched on a stone tablet – they will never be forgotten.

Networking: Then and Now

Social media and technology are reshaping our language as well as our culture. We’re creating words to keep up with the various new gadgets, apps, and trends. Words like: selfie, meme, tweet, and binge watching. And lest we forget the ever popular acronyms like LOL, LMAO, OMG, and BFF. When I was a young whipper-snapper, the only acronyms I recall hearing often were ASAP, BYOB, and TGIF.

We abbreviate everything to reduce keystrokes and to fit a message into a limited field. “You” is now the letter U and “are” is now just the letter R. Why, kids today couldn’t spell out a whole sentence if they ate a dictionary and pooped out the words. This is where I shake my fist at the youngsters while gripping my walker with the other, and I yell at them to get off my lawn.