Mind Set Go

Here we are this holiday season, 2025, surrounded by Christmas music of days gone by, madly doing what the masses do.  Every now and then we (actually) stop to reflect how grateful we are that we have healed, that we have family and friends that mean so much to us, that we are guided Spiritually and that, seemingly, so much is going right.  We are looking forward to the day very soon when we will have both entered the time when full-time employment is replaced by full-time volunteerism and part-time consulting.

Perhaps most of us also “feel bombarded” by bad news we sometimes (perceive to) “let in” when we stop to reflect what is going on around us.   We, perhaps, often selfishly wonder how it affects our own delicate balance.  With the world’s delicate (ecological) balance at stake, due much in part by human behavior, are we seemingly only now just starting to wonder what we can do about it?  Will we start analyzing what we didn’t do yesterday and what might happen tomorrow without living in the reality of the effects our actions and inactions today may have?

Sitting in a log cabin in the northeastern part of the United State while writing this, I am reminded (while looking at snow-covered ground, becoming harder this season as the cold sets in hour-by-hour, day-by-day, month-by-month), that it is a changing world internally and externally.  Our own shifts in perception seem guided by an overwhelming tendency to self-determine what we deem acceptable from an egoic stance, veiled by our own paradigms.  It’s a lens we not only accept but seem to live by as we interpret the world through our judgements and beliefs. 

Viktor Frankl and Robert Shumaker survived some of the worst examples of human behavior in two different eras and locales: WWII Holocaust prison camps and a Vietnam War prison camp, respectively.  At least one commonality can be gleaned between these two cases of survival in the direst of circumstances.  Frankel and Shumaker both identified that those who did not live in the reality of the day and, rather, simply hoped for things to get better and for bad things to somehow end by a certain date, soon lost real hope and faltered; they succumbed to their own disappointment and fall from reality when things did not go as they hoped as self-imposed deadlines came and went.  Amidst tremendous loss, both Frankel and Shumaker found reasons to live, thriving and sharing revelations of what can happen when embracing the reality of challenging situations whilst living fully with purpose.  (The power of prayer and meditation is quite different than the practice of simply holding false hope.  Prayer and meditation can be powerful amidst living with purpose in the moment with eyes open wide without the veil of selfish motives shaping reality. )

What kind of holiday message is this?  It’s actually one filled with real Hope of the essence and powerful impact of what true Love is, guiding us as we embrace “reality” as we steer into the future.  Shifting into gear is not all about escaping and going somewhere new equipped with the same baggage we held before, but letting go and walking mindfully, holding each others’ hands along the way, guided by purpose and vision. 

Live fully and well, with purpose, in the transition rather than waiting for a better tomorrow.  (Some might say that transitions are difficult when the reality is that transition is now and always.)  Improving your mindset and how you act today is what makes positive change for tomorrow.  Additionally, living with the grace that God provides means you are never alone. 

As we, in our own personal lives, shift to retirement and volunteering (yet one more stage in this constant transition), we realize that priorities never change.  Life is good, and much is possible.  Make this a reality as you remove the false veil of hope as something that happens in the future; rather, live in hope of and for today with purpose—with arms reaching so wide that the touch of one soul, who walked on this earth, can make a difference.  That is the true message of this holiday. 

May God bless you and yours.  From our family to yours, happy, happy holiday!