I know it’s Christmas Eve. I know readers might expect me to write something Christmasy. But the truth of the matter is that I’m just not feeling it. And when I’m not feeling it, nothing worth reading flows through my fingers to the keyboard.
Just so no one thinks I’m a complete curmudgeon (or grinch, as is more appropriate for the season), know that I do wish you, dear reader, and everyone who is important to you during this season the very best of merry, happy, and peace on earth. It’s amazing that so many people of the world culture stop, once a year, to celebrate goodness and joy, regardless of their religious differences. But the holiday season doesn’t do much for me anymore. I wrote a post about it back in 2022 that’s linked here in case you’re interested. Last year, we celebrated Christmas more traditionally by traveling to Lynn and Dave’s Christmas wonderland in Missouri. Here’s a link to the post describing that adventure.
We’re headed to Naples this afternoon to spend Christmas Eve and Day with my youngest sister Lisa and her husband Jim. They’re some of my favorite people and we’ll have a great time together, as we always do, not just because it’s Christmas, but because being with family you like is ALWAYS fun. The holiday obligation of spending time with people you don’t like who happen to be family is one of those grinchy things about Christmas that I avoid when I can.
What I do like about December 25 every year is that it’s only a week away from New Year’s Day. I’ve written about this before as well. Here’s a link to that post. The promise of New Beginnings. Even in my 70th year, that still excites me.
Interestingly, the state motto of Wisconsin, where I was born and raised, is “Forward.” Short, sweet, and absolutely to the point. And one of my all-time favorite quotes (and pieces of great advice) is “Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.”
The beginning of a new year is a good time to remember all that, and to put it into practice.
Regardless of how long you’ve lived, you’re bound to accumulate some regrets. It’s my opinion (and practice) that folks need to take care they don’t let those regrets shape their future. No matter how bad the past may be, the future can be completely different if you endeavor to make it so.
My sister-in-law Lynn introduced me to an on-line influencer, RJ Spina, who healed himself of chest-down paralysis. He then founded a non-profit center for human advancement and wrote a series of books about self-healing.
RJ repeats, over and over in his videos, “Where your attention goes, your energy flows. And where your energy flows, your energy grows.” Energy, in this context, is your life force. How this is relevant here is that if you focus your attention and your energy (the way you traditionally think of your energy…the effort you put into something) into things that happened in the past, particularly in things you regret, it saps your life force.
Sapping your current life force because of something that happened in the past, that is “behind you” so to speak, something that can’t be changed, is just plain dumb. What you can do is to try to fix the situation if it’s fixable. And if it’s not, lay it down right this minute where you are and take the step(s) necessary to move forward.
It sounds simple, but I know it can be hard. It takes effort, attention, and focus to look forward instead of backward, especially if it is a habit you’ve developed over many years. Habits are mindless, non-self-aware, repeatable, unconscious behaviors we fall into. When we form habits with repeated actions that have a negative effect on our lives, or the lives of those we care about, we lose control over our own power.
Moving forward instead of constantly going back truly empowers us. But as with all bad habits we’ve developed, giving our attention, consciously, to the actions to break those habits is easier said than done. Still, it is absolutely worth the effort. I thank God that I’m not prone to look back and dwell on regrets.
Though looking back is not one of them, that’s not to say that I don’t have a whole host of bad habits to break. I’ve written about this in many ways over the life of this blog. Like so many others, at this time of the year I’m in the process of making plans to conquer some of the same bad habits I worked on (but was unsuccessful at breaking) last year at this same time. Believe me, there are plenty of them to focus my attention on.
I’m human. What can I say?
Here are the things I’m looking forward to this year:
- Changing my lifestyle to attain better health. My attention will be on choosing foods that don’t contribute to insulin resistance and finding ways to move more.
- Remembering every day of this 50th anniversary year to acknowledge the blessings we’ve experienced because Randy and I promised (and kept that promise) to each other back in 1975 to be life partners, for better or worse.
- Seeing and catching up with many of the friends we’ve made over the years when we do our grand adventure tour of the United States this summer.
- Making a few physical improvements to this forever home I love so much.
How about you? Are there things from the past you need to lay down and move forward? What are you looking forward to?
If looking back is something you struggle with, give yourself the gift of forgiveness this Christmas and look forward to a more beautiful and peaceful future.
If you need help or encouragement, I want to support you in your efforts to focus your attention on things that will positively impact your life. Let me know how I can help you.
Merry Christmas!
P.S. The weather outside is definitely not frightful. The only white in our Florida Christmas is the sand at our beautiful beaches. I love living in Florida, even at Christmas. But I repeat myself…
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