Friday, December 11, 2015

The 12 Blogs of Christmas: Stop and Smell the Roses

Now two weeks after thanksgiving I come to you all a bit more introspective than usual. It’s usually at this time of year that we all reflect. The year in review raps get posted. People start to talk about new year’s resolutions. Probably one of the things we don’t talk much about are the things we didn’t get to accomplish during the past year. It’s more likely that we probably beat ourselves up privately because certain things didn’t pan out.
If you’re not one of these people, then kudos to you.
The truth is, I have always been one of those people. You see, I’m a very laid back guy. I’m subtle in almost everything besides my writing. So there are many times where I may not be satisfied with where I am at a certain point in my life. I’m always looking for that next thing to happen. Sometimes it goes down and sometimes it doesn’t, much like a Steph Curry jumper. Ok, who am I kidding? All of his jumpers go down.
In all seriousness, a recent conversation with a client at work really got me to thinking.
I don’t take enough time to pat myself on the back for the things that I have accomplished this year. To be brief, I work with many impoverished families. The woman who came to see me on this day was dealing with a pending eviction, she was currently in cancer treatment and was living in the family’s house of an adulterating estranged husband. So yeah, she had her hands full. As we spoke and I gave her some options as to improve some of her situation, she always cited seeing the bigger picture. She is currently enrolled at a community college and she had this passion for wanting to help others. She wants the opportunity to use her struggles as a way to show strength to other people going through their own trials. I found that to be mighty admirable. It was at that moment that I thought, “Yo, you can’t be that hard on yourself all of the time.” The things that I obsess over mentally is more so about the writing I want more people to see and helping other people cultivate their ideas. I have other personal goals that I am driven to meet, but I don’t have ANY issues that rival what this woman was going through. In fact, every goal I set for 2015 I have completed except for one. The one goal that is incomplete is a big goal; a game changing one. Nonetheless, I can still chase this thing next year and I plan to. I came to the conclusion that I don’t smell the roses enough. All of you reading this, you don’t give yourselves enough credit. For whatever reason, we don’t embrace our greatness as often as we should. It’s probably because we’re so busy just trying to be great and ready for the next opportunity.
In this holiday season, I just want all of you to reflect.
Think about all the work you’ve put in this year. Don’t feel guilty to smile about it. Buy yourself those pair of boots. Pat yourself on the shoulder. Have yourself an Old Fashioned, or my favorite, a Macallan 25 on a Friday evening. However you choose to celebrate, do so with conviction. It’s not illegal to be proud of yourself and smell the roses. That’s the lesson I ended up taking from that woman recently. So many others see all this good in the things we don’t give a second thought to. It’s time we do that a little bit more often. Nothing wrong with a heightened consciousness. Welcome to the holidays!

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