And Christmas is over, so??

All the show and fun and gifts and kisses and hugs… all compressed in one day (more or less).

Now, I suggest you check on your gifts. Check also on your feelings, because that is what probably will last a while. Maybe a long while...

Our Christmas ritual, even though it has become more of a commercial success day, it is much more than that. In ways nobody can explain, it touches our heart and soul very deeply.

Personally, I was never so much into Christmas. That was until I moved to another country and realized I would be all by myself in that day.

I am not sure what I felt… Was it fear? Was I feeling abandoned? Loneliness? I decided to act so I’ve cooked a nice lunch and invited a bunch of people I know more or less and… I felt so good!! It was a unique feeling of belonging to a place I did not belong.

Many years later, I still remember that day although nowadays I am always with people I love around me. I had the taste of the spirit of Christmas, of that invisible feeling floating around us when that time comes.

But then, why to wait? Why to wait until a certain date comes? Just do it right now, with me and many other people around you.

A very merry ETERNAL Christmas!

Values in reality

Values move the world…

Even though we don’t see them clearly, they are there, before any action or behavior. Values are present in any rescue, birthday, death and war, even when their presence is because they are so absent we can see it is missing.

Most of the time, we focus our attention into whatever we see and touch. If it is bad, we try to fix it; if it is good, we try to multiply it. We don’t think much about what is behind, what generated that action or what is there that will make that behavior to repeat again.

As our world moves fast, too fast to be fixed or to replicate it, it is time we stop doing and start reflecting, understanding what is beneath every action. This would save lots of energy, money and time, even though that time to stop seems to be useless. It is not because when reflection happens, values emerge in mind and it is easy to realize them.

So, if you want to change an action, check those values; probably, a few good ones are missing and they are important to be there. If the action is really good, by knowing which values were present, they can be replicate.

Values are not something you can shop around, but they are inside you and me. When you start to reflect on them, you are awakening them. It is a similar process of liking someone or hating a person; you think of that and the emotions emerge, making you speak something or punching a guy.

The biggest and secret challenge we all have is to understand the values process and use it to change our life and the world. Although it is not the only thing that makes changes to take place, its importance is invaluable.

So, why not starting right now? Take this time to reflect upon something not so good happening to you, understand the values missing there and reflect on them.

As you and I reflect, values emerge in our minds and naturally we start to act on them. The more we reflect, more natural that will be until one day, we act in the way we always wanted to do.

What happened to living in a city?

By listening to Downtown from the voice of Petula Clark, you just wondered what kind of downtown she is referring… Maybe that clarify the point, when years later, when a TV series was about to end, a group of friends summarize that by commenting on the desire of one of them, to live in a place where “kids could ride their bikes in the street”: So you want to buy a house in the 50's?

The truth is that cities are less and less livable. Or you could say they are OK to live, but the quality of your life won’t be that great. You probably have to commute much more and stay less and less in your own place.

But one day they were a symbol of status and good life, and a high quality of life. Safety, prosperity and welfare were a synonym of living in a city; the bigger, the better.

What happened?

First, there are the visible facts of cars and more cars, of pollution in many places, the increasing population taking people to feel more insecure. After all, paradoxically the normal consequence of granting good quality to others is that gradually the numbers increase and quality decreases.

But there is something more: the disconnection of people with earth and the natural vocation of human beings as rural people. It happened slowly along the centuries, starting from our fascination for the cities – which were, in the beginning, rural outposts for selling and exchanging – attracting us to live there and to adapt our lives and customs to that. And losing some of it…

Probably if you live in a city you will think it is impossible to come back to those old values and way of life when you trusted completely in your neighbor and simplicity was a rule. Probably it is very difficult to go back there and if for some reason you are able to rebuild your city, probably it will attract so many people those values will get lost eventually again.

There is however something you can do, and it is related to your own values. Maybe you can’t avoid one-hour traffic but you can have a smile in your face and do something useful for yourself during that time. Perhaps you cannot prevent the noise and pollution, but you can make your mind silent and clean.

I tell you, it works. You start to love your time in the city, or wherever you are living. You start to love who you are, no matter your situation. You can see the quality of your life increases too. Externally, we can do little, but internally, we can do it all.

And the end is near...

If you go to a river that ends in a waterfall, the sensation is that closer to the cascade, the river speed up as if it wants to go as fast as possible to the end of its journey.

I guess that is how you are probably feeling right now. Yes, 2015 is ending and its speed has increased, with more things to do than available time.

And yet it is such an important time for humans. In our civilization we have created many customs and the end of the year is one that happens in most cultures. It is a time to end whatever has taken place during the year: accounts, projects, bad habits, wrong assumptions, animosity…

Because we live in a big cycle, with everything around us and inside us repeating itself from time to time, when the end comes, you know there is a beginning close. So, this is also a time to plan new things, to renew reality around you and to reignite the wonderful flame of hope in our hearts.

We have the will and the intuition and the feeling and the reasoning that 2016 will be an incredible year. Even though January 1^st will be probably quite similar to today…

It is that end-beginning phase we are going through that makes things seem so fast. A suggestion: don’t hurry and keep your pace and your reality in check. Enjoy the rush around you as if it is a big game and smile a lot.

A last suggestion is to start today ending things you want to finish with the end of the year. Start today to plan that marvelous 2016. Do that and I am sure 2016 will be more than just hope.