One of the most powerful symbolic moments of humanity was on display in the most unlikely of places—the cold, mud-filled trenches along the Western front during the Great War on Christmas Eve 1914. The day had seen very little shelling or rifle fire, and, by nightfall, the shooting had completely stopped.
Later that night, the British troops could hear sounds floating across the frozen battlefield: “Stille Nacht. Heilige Nacht. Alles Schlaft, einsam wacht.” They did not understand the words, but the tune was unmistakably familiar. As they peered into the darkness over the edge of their waterlogged trenches, they saw what appeared to be candles and Christmas trees with lights on the edge of the German trenches, which were only thirty to seventy meters away. The British responded in kind and started singing Christmas carols as well.
As Christmas Day broke, the fraternization began in earnest after one German infantryman appeared holding a Tannenbaum—a miniature Christmas tree glowing with light. In his strong German accent, he declared, “Merry Christmas. We not shoot; you not shoot.”
Full story at: The Quest to Peace: During the Holidays and Throughout the Year « Positively Positive.
17 Sneaky Ways to Stay Energized During the Holidays
Greatist – Health and Fitness Articles, News, and Tips
Full story at: 17 Sneaky Ways to Stay Energized During the Holidays.
This Is One Serving: Holiday Party Snacks
Greatist – Health and Fitness Articles, News, and Tips
Get more here: This Is One Serving: Holiday Party Snacks.
5 Best Gifts You Can Give (Hint: They’re All Free)
The greatest gifts you can give to anyone you love are your time, your love, your respect and your heart.
Full story at: 5 Best Gifts You Can Give (Hint: They’re All Free).
You are the Creator!
You tell stories. You believe them.
They are just stories you have created, and will continue to create, unless you shaken awake.
You are the creator.
Everything you see actually reveals things about you. What you see in others, is inside you.
When you realize that, it will help you see. Only then will you have true understanding.
I am in your life because you created me. Perhaps I am here to help you awaken.
For too long the common methods of communication (media, marketing, politics, etc.) have made us think and feel small. This has served their motive to control and keep us subservient. So long as you believe yourself small, you seek their product to improve your life.
Remember what it felt like to be a child, to see the world of infinite possibility and to see no reason why our dreams can’t become a reality? As adult stargazers, we intuitively know that the stars watch over us, exerting an unseen influence on our lives. The shift is that we’re seeing our own lives as a story in the grander scheme of the cosmos; a microcosm of the greater expanse of reality.
For too long, our innate knowledge of our magnificence has been suppressed. Now we are ready to dream up a new possibility, to take the first step to achieving alchemical results.
Whatever you can imagine for yourself is possible, when you take action. Open your eyes to the lessons of the cosmos, the whispers of the stars, the caresses of the wind, the wisdom of the sunshine that feeds and nourishes our being. When you believe in your dream, your sense of self immediately expands. You become bigger than when you set out.
When you take the first step in search of your dream, each step is a little miracle along the road to your dream. Strangers will support you, people you never imagined will mysteriously appear before you to help you along the way. The spirit is moved by action, and your spirit will support your dream.
The grander your vision, the more action will be required and the more support from the spirit will be received. When we embark on a journey to achieve our dream, we literally and metaphysically move mountains in the cosmos. Lives are changed by our dreams. We enroll advisers, helpers, guides, workers, servers and supporters.
The greater our vision, the more we will start believing that spirit follows our thought, that matter and spirit are one and the same. All of greatness is achieved by believing boldly, imagining the impossible, taking the first step and each following step without losing sight of the destination.
Leap into the unknown, take a journey within and open your eyes to new possibilities. There’s a hero within each of us, just waiting to be heard.
As we embark on the holiday season and a new year awaits, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a safe, joyous and peaceful festive season.
This is our time. Our time to choose. Our time to flourish. Our time to take responsibility for our lives and our beloved planet.
We can be heroes. We can be creators.” via You are the Creator | FinerMinds.
10 Best Products That People Don’t Know About
In a typical holiday list of things to buy, I found one entertaining thought. I’d like to see someone actually use this at O’Hare Airport on a busy travel day!
9 other things you can’t live without here: 10 Best Products That People Don’t Know About – Gift Ideas.
An Irresponsible Christmas
The minimalists write:
We are clearly in the throes of the holiday-shopping season. Take a look around. The shopping malls are packed with herds of consumers. The storefronts are decorated in green and red. The jingly commercials are running nonstop.
The holiday season has much to recommend it, though. Each year around this time we all feel that warm-’n’-fuzzy Christmastime nostalgia associated with the onset of winter. We break out the scarfs and the gloves and the winter coats. We go ice skating and sledding and eat hearty meals with our extended families. We take time off work and spend time with our loved ones and give thanks for the gift of life.
The problem is that we’ve been conditioned to associate this joyous time of year—the mittens and decorations and the family activities—with purchasing material items. We’ve trained ourselves to believe that buying stuff is part of Christmas.
We all know, however, that the holidays needn’t require gifts to be meaningful. Rather, this time of year is meaningful because of its true meaning—not the wrapped boxes we place under the tree.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with gifts. But it’s irresponsible for us to believe that purchasing presents is a required part of the holidays. Instead, we can celebrate the infinite gifts we have all around us. Even without presents—a sans-gifts holiday—we have everything we need to be jolly and merry and joyous on Christmas already.
The Awkward Holiday Photo Contest
AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com
via The Awkward Holiday Photo Contest Presented by Parental Guidance.
The Best Present Is Presence
I HATE CHRISTMAS. Or perhaps it would be better to say I hate what Christmas has become. The consumerism, the expectations, the obligations; none of which have anything to do with ‘reason for the season’ — celebrating relationship with a higher power…
Perhaps that is why I like this perspective from The Minimalists so much:
What if you could receive only one Christmas present this year? What would it be?
The answer for us is simple: time.
You see, the people we care about mean much more to us than a new pair of shoes or a shiny new gadget or even a certified pre-owned luxury car with a huge bow on top.
And yet, many of us attempt to give material items to make up for the time we don’t spend with the people we love. But possessions can’t ever make up for lost time.
The next time someone asks you what you want for Christmas, consider responding with, “Your presence is the best gift you can give me.”
When you’re completely focused in the moment—no TV, no Internet, no distractions—it makes a marked difference in the lives of the people around you. When you’re fully present, your love radiates.
And if you’re going to give gifts this holiday season, why not give your unencumbered time and attention first? Your loved ones will be glad you did.” via The Best Present Is Presence | The Minimalists.
Gift Experiences, Not Stuff

Here’s an idea. What if you decided to gift only experiences this year? How much more memorable would your holidays be?
Experiences worth gifting: concert tickets, a home-cooked meal, tickets to a play or musical, breakfast in bed, a back rub, a foot rub, a full-body massage, a holiday parade, walking or driving somewhere without a plan, spending an evening talking with no distractions, making out under the mistletoe, visiting a festival of lights, cutting down a Christmas tree, watching a sunrise, skiing, snowboarding, sledding, dancing, taking your children to a petting zoo, making snow angels, attending a free meetup with The Minimalists, making a batch of hot apple cider, taking a vacation together, watching a wintertime sunset.
What other experiences could you give to someone you care about?
Your experiences build and strengthen the bond between you and the people you care about.
Don’t you think you’d find more value in these experiences than in material gifts? Don’t you think your loved ones will find more value, too? There’s only one way to find out.
The Power Of Going Slow!
Frequently when I curate Kute Blackson’s content, I don’t know where to cut him off. Today is one of those days! He writes:
Life will soon be over.
Are you making the most of each moment?
Everything in our world today moves so fast.
High speed internet.
Fast food restaurants.
Planes that fly around the world in a matter of hours.
Speed dating.
Yet, are we anymore fulfilled and happy as human beings?
We busily rush around multitasking ten things at once, trying to get somewhere.
Where are we trying to get to so fast?
In our effort to get to some destination, it’s often easy to miss the moment and lose the beauty of the journey.
Now is your destiny.
This moment is full of aliveness that is so easy to miss in an effort to get to that “ideal” destination in the future. The destination being only one small point in time that is over the moment you reach it.
Which is why I think that once we reach the goal we strive so hard to get to, it is not nearly as satisfying as we imagined.
The real joy lies not simply in reaching a special place or moment in the future, but in making each moment SPECIAL along the way, now.
What if there was nowhere to get to?
We often think that once we get “there” everything will change, we will be so happy, and all our problems will go away.
But what if where you were was exactly where you were supposed to be to learn what you needed to learn so that you would be ready to fulfill your Soul’s destiny… and that who you become in the process is more important than the arrival at the destination?
Life is not simply in the one moment of arrival but in the many moments along the way. It is those many moments that make that one moment so sweet.
We often think that getting to the “ideal” place will make us happy, only to get there and think, “Is this it?”
We often busy ourselves and fill our days with so much DOING, which is what is valued in our culture today.
But we must remember: Everything has a cycle and a natural rhythm. Everything has its perfect time. When you try to force things in life to happen faster than they are meant to, things do not flow. The mango has its right time to ripen. The sun and moon have there right time to shine.
When you slow down and trust the rhythm that is life, you experience its magic and synchronicity.
So, sometimes you have to slow down in order to speed up. It’s in the slowing down that you can have clearer perspective. When you are moving so fast, it’s not always easy to integrate, appreciate and let in the fullness of all that is happening around you. When you are moving so fast, it can be hard to really experience the joy of the moment fully.
When you allow yourself to slow down, you allow yourself to breathe. You allow space. Just like breathing is not just an exhale but also an inhale. Life is not just about being in action but in stillness.
When you slow down, you allow the the perfect people, places, situations to fall into place in alignment, so that when you do arrive everything you need is there right on time.
Think about it: There is no use rushing to a fancy restaurant for dinner if they are closed. You need to arrive once they are open. Knowing this, you can learn to enjoy the spaces. Use the spaces to rejuvenate, to re-clarify and prepare for what’s next, so that when what you want arrives at your door step you are ready!
What if there was nowhere to get to other than where you are now?
No special moment in the future.
No special holiday.
Just this moment.
To experience this moment as fully as possible is to be truly alive.
The beauty of this moment is free. It costs nothing other than simply being aware and appreciating it.
The journey is the reward itself.
Breathe.
Slow down.
Take everything in.
Tomorrow can wait.
Now is your only guarantee.
There will never be another moment like…
….THIS.
Source: The Power Of Going Slow!
The best of ‘what I see’ for 11/25/2012
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You Have To Find Something http://bit.ly/TjTZJ9 http://pic.twitter.com/N0SCDVno
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
10 minutes ago -
You’re Worth More than This! http://bit.ly/WNi2Ww http://pic.twitter.com/sQp1GGfw
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
20 minutes ago -
30s Tip: What Are the Nutrients of Avocado? http://bit.ly/QDVAxo
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
32 minutes ago -
How To Beat The Holiday Bah Humbug http://bit.ly/QDVCoY
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
32 minutes ago -
3 Ways to Bring Your Career to Life http://bit.ly/U5hl67
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
an hour ago -
5 Reasons Detachment Can Save Your Relationship http://bit.ly/UStxpf http://pic.twitter.com/UCRJRkvJ
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
3 hours ago -
RT @ChiTribHamilton: #NotreDame is headed to the national championship game.
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
9 hours ago -
Just because today was terrible doesn’t mean tomorrow won’t be the best day of your life http://bit.ly/TcXjFE http://pic.twitter.com/GqUSA4rf
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
13 hours ago -
3 Reasons Why You Should Juice http://bit.ly/SlhKS0
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
13 hours ago -
Keep a Food Diary to Lose Weight and Maintain It http://bit.ly/WLygPM
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
13 hours ago -
A flock of wild turkeys http://bit.ly/YduZt6 http://pic.twitter.com/UYqUhXj3
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
17 hours ago -
Letting Go http://bit.ly/URz9QC http://pic.twitter.com/GbdWqumF
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
21 hours ago -
Good advice… http://bit.ly/URz6EB http://pic.twitter.com/NfsoQ8ND
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
21 hours ago -
The best of @toddlohenry for 11/24/2012 http://bit.ly/UkzBLc http://pic.twitter.com/G6N64KcY
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
21 hours ago
The best of @toddlohenry for 11/24/2012
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23 Health and Fitness Resources You May Have Missed http://bit.ly/QBInoP
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
3 hours ago -
Warning: Avoid These 7 Mistakes When Building a Home Based Business http://bit.ly/UBR4go
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
3 hours ago -
Are Religious People Happier? | Psychology Today http://twy.la/UR8Ude
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
3 hours ago -
A new playlist: The joy of eating http://bit.ly/QAflpK
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
Avoiding Family Angst on Thanksgiving http://bit.ly/QAflpG
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
5 Thanksgiving dinner disasters and how to avoid them http://bit.ly/QAflpC
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
Holidays, Families, and Fairness | Psychology Today http://twy.la/QAeFk4
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
Good read! http://storify.com/toddlohenry/storypad/elements/50afe3fe4ed978857641a9c9
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
4 Low-Calorie Pumpkin Treats http://bit.ly/U2vl0q
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
17 Important Things To Do With Thanksgiving Leftovers http://bit.ly/U2vl0k
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
DIY Gifts Are the Ultimate Remedy for Black Friday http://bit.ly/U2vm4l
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
AdjustYourPrivacy Locks Down Your Entire Internet Life from One Page http://bit.ly/WHlbqG
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
6 ways to tweet yourself out of a job http://bit.ly/UyHIlj
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
Crashing the Yoga Barrier for Men http://twy.la/Sj51zc
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
spinach salad with warm bacon vinaigrette http://bit.ly/YavELP
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
19 hours ago -
Poor Rudolph…
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
a day ago -
Passing Along Work Ethic to Children: http://bit.ly/Y9XRSR
— Todd Lohenry (@toddlohenry)
a day ago
Challenge: Buy Nothing Until 2013
Leo Babauta has an interesting answer to this season of rampant consumerism. Don’t buy anything except essentials until next year:
Today is one of the worst days of the year: overconsumption day (or Black Friday as some call it). Or you could call it one of the best days of the year: Buy Nothing Day.
I prefer the latter — it means we waste less, consumer fewer resources, stop looking to shopping to solve our problems and make us happy, and instead find simpler ways of finding contentment.
And so today I extend a challenge to all of you, and the world: Buy Nothing Until 2013.
Yes, I’m taking Buy Nothing Day and extending it through the end of the year.
Why the hell would you want to do this challenge?
Do it as a protest against consumerism and corporate influences on our lives. Do it as a tool for contentment, for simplicity. Do it to reclaim the holidays as a time of connection and love, not of buying and debt. Do it just to see if you can.
And yes, you can still do it if you’ve already done some Black Friday shopping. We’ll forgive our past sins and start afresh. :)
Get the rest of the plan here: » Challenge: Buy Nothing Until 2013 :zenhabits
Me, I think I could easily do this — it’s the other people in my family I’m not so sure about! What about you? And how do you plan to proceed this holiday season?
8 Tips for Dealing with Difficult Relatives During the Holiday Season
Gretchen Rubin has some valuable insight for those who struggle with the holidays for one reason or another:
Holidays can be tough. Some people love them; some people dread them.
I thought a lot about the holidays as I was writing Happier at Home, because the holiday season tends to be a time when we focus on home. Maybe you’re going “home” the way I go home to Kansas City for Christmas–which may be fun for you, or not. Maybe you’re deciding how to decorate your home. Maybe you’re making an effort to arrange the holidays the way you experienced them as a child–or the opposite. Maybe you’re feeling sad, or happy, about whom you will or won’t be seeing.
From talking to people, it seems that one of the biggest happiness challenges of the holidays is dealing with difficult relatives. You want to have a nice dinner, but Uncle Bobby makes you crazy. What to do?” Get the answer here: 8 Tips for Dealing with Difficult Relatives During the Holiday Season. « The Happiness Project.
This Is One Serving: Thanksgiving Favorites
The average American gobbles down more than 4,500 calories on Turkey Day, but that number can be easily slashed — starting with some basic portion control. But what’s 4 ounces, 78 grams, or a ¼ cup exactly? Follow this serving size guide for a smarter (but still enjoyable!) holiday meal — minus the elastic-waisted pants.” Full story at: This Is One Serving: Thanksgiving Favorites | Greatist.
Block Friday
The guys over at the Minimalists have this thought to share:
This Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year: Black Friday. Retailers prepare months in advance for this dark day—preparation that’s meant to stimulate your insatiable desire to consume: Doorbuster sales. New products. Gigantic newspaper ads. TV, radio, print, billboards. Sale, sale, sale! Early bird specials. One day only! Get the best deal. Act now! While supplies last.
The Minimalists would, however, like to shed some light on this darkest of Fridays. It’s important to understand that consumption is an unquenchable thirst. Retailers and advertisers and manufacturers know this too well. And thus, they’ve invented an entire day designed to take advantage of your insatiable desire to consume.
The pernicious aspects of Black Friday are not few. The pandemonium of this day is a synecdoche for our consumer culture as a whole. On this day, people consume gluttonously without regard for the harm they’re inflicting on themselves. On this day, greed becomes ravenous. On this day, people live without real meaning, buying gifts to fill a void that can’t possibly be filled with material possessions.
Sadly, people participate in the rapacious nature of Black Friday in the name of a holiday, as if buying gifts was an ideal way to celebrate Christmas. But thankfully, you have options.
Instead of embracing Black Friday, you can Block Friday. You can refuse to buy material items for people to display your love. Rather, you can showcase your love, caring, and affection through daily actions—every day, not just holidays.
If you want to give gifts, why not gift an experience—a nice meal, tickets to a concert, or a sunset on the beach? After all, the best, most loving gift you can give someone is your time and undivided attention.
Will you join us? Will you opt out of Black Friday? If not, why not?
Source: Dark Friday | The Minimalists
I will opt out! I hate what Christmas has become and the stress that it causes by all the false expectations it creates. Give me Thanksgiving with family, food and gratitude and I’ll see you next year…
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