A Christmas Unlike any Other
(or how things have changed)
I just couldn’t do it. Stay quiet I mean. It was nice to have a little break, but writing is such a nice way to let off some steam lol and I just wanted to give you a little update about what’s been going on.
We were unexpectedly surprised by our daughter in law, who also surprised our son, by going behind his back and made sure he got to fly out to us a little over a week ago. She made arrangements with his boss and took care of the flight. Talk about timing too, since right now The Netherlands are back into full lockdown and giving myself some ‘time off’ even before I knew he was coming. There is No Such Thing as Coincidence 😉
Since he is an assistant manager in a grocery store, he was very aware of everything that’s involved with the pandemic and was very careful. We were actually wondering if everything would go well, regarding the flight and everything involved. If he would actually arrive and if he would be able to go back home. Fortunately everything went fine, it all just took a little bit more time on the airport, which was as to be expected.
Picking him up at the airport was also different, seeing as we weren’t allowed inside – made sense – and the quietness of the place. But we had a hilarious couple of days, as always happens, when we’re together. And of course I baked a 1000 layer cake…It was beneficial to our mental wellbeing, to be able to connect again, since we hadn’t seen him for a year. You can imagine how very grateful we were to our daughter in law, who, btw, also joined in on the X-Mas Special, Spotlight on YOU.
I had a great time working on that article, though it took me way more time than anticipated 😂 it didn’t help that I was trying to give the article a little bit of a different look than usual. I still have to deal with the limitations of the app and that can be frustrating. Things that would seem easy enough at first, might not look all that great when setting up the page. I also have to take into account that most people are most likely reading the articles on their phones, which makes the layout look different than on your PC/laptop:
I already figured, if I’m ever going to do something like that again, I would have to come up with a better plan 🙄 But it turned out really nice and I loved how everyone involved, was really INVOLVED. I hope you enjoyed reading it, as much as I enjoyed writing it. And if you did not participate this time, I hope you will next time. Although I must say, anymore participants and I would still be writing that article now lol. A good thing though; after writing a monster article like that, any ‘normal’ sized article feels like a piece of cake.
Thinking about the fact that the articles are being read in 41 countries – still a LOT left to cover – makes me wonder about how this thing escalated so quickly. Even the last uncovered continent – Africa – got hit last month, albeit with just one country yet, lol. Looking at the stats pic, Steve mentioned: it’s almost like looking at the COVID statistics 👀 Oopsies.
So in a way I was still busy with my blog, but different. It gave me some time to reflect and put a little break on things. You know I always get far too carried away, once I get started lol and I try not to fall into the ‘writers block’ trap. It was also nice to share this a little with Jordan, since he hadn’t ‘seen’ me starting this and working on it. So much has happened for all of us this past year. I bet it’s the same for all of you.
Some contradiction: We were all forced to a standstill but life went on, although in a different reality. So maybe there’s a parallel universe after all.
And now we’re almost at the end of this really weird year. I would love to find ways to interact more with you all, make the blog a more two-way conversation. But then again, maybe you guys just enjoy reading it, having some kind of a little peek inside my life and escape for a couple of minutes. Whatever the case, I am thinking about ways to change things up, even just a little. And again, I’m still open to any suggestions 😅
Anyways, this last month feels like a lot of little things happened for the blog, specifically for the Spotlight side. WAIT. Is This The Dark Side?? Just kidding. But seriously, I got more involved into certain artists life and some of them I really consider friends in a way. And as with all relationships, the more you get involved in each others life’s, the more you share – or is it the other way around – and things will happen. As it is, I’m still waiting for Akara to release his Nu-Disco mix, which he asked me to contribute 20 songs for… Should be coming any moment now, since it’s meant as a Christmas Gift to his 134K YouTube followers lol.
Of course the Spotlight articles helped enormously, with spreading the blog, since they’re all over the world, but it still amazes me, how these communities care for each other. Most of these people try to make a living from their music / art, but still have to go to work or school, since many of them started very young. It’s really fun when they discover I could be their Mom basically 😜 They totally get, how tough a new start can be and are overall very supportive to each other and to me. It’s a ‘reap-and-you-will-sow’, kind of thing you know.
Though I have my dreams, I’ll go ahead and let myself get surprised by where this is going, just going with the flow, as with most things in our life’s. Trying to keep looking at it as the adventure it’s supposed to be.
It’s funny though, because even with how well things are going, I do have my moments, where I ask myself: ‘what am I doing it all for’ lol and like I said, also wondering why anything I write would be interesting enough to read. I guess a little doubt now and then will keep me humble enough and keep myself in check. It’s one of the reasons, why feedback can actually help to look at the blog from another angle.
BUT, as you see, I can’t stay silent and writing has found its place in my daily life. During this whole pandemic, it gave me a sense of not totally wasting my time away and some sort of rhythm to my days. Sitting around doing nothing/reading/knitting etc. can only be enjoyed for so long right? So I hope many of you also found something new that fills your days and give you a little satisfaction or personal reward. If you do, I would love to hear about it, might be a real inspiration to encourage each other!
How’s Christmas going to be for you? I do hope you will be able to connect with Loved Ones, or if not, at least you won’t have to spend it alone. In a way, that hasn’t really changed: it’s just that any other year we at least might have had the Choice, as now, there might not be one. Having that choice taken away from us, is – understandably – a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people. You see… I have been talking about Choices a couple of times before. It seems that a lot of people actually become aware of having one. We take too much for granted in life…
Any New Year’s Resolutions? Whahah, I guess we all have a lot we would wish to change/upgrade, next year, unfortunately a lot of it is just a little out of our human reach. But we keep the positivity flowing, though I might need a kick in da butt now and then 😂 aah well…it’s gonna be a Christmas Unlike any Other, but that doesn’t necessarily means, it’s going to be bad.
My wish to you all:
Thank you for reading & hope to see you all next year! 💖🎄💖
For
Feedback
Questions
Suggestions
Colorful Expressions 