The Holidays

One Holiday character said “The most enjoying traditions of the season are best enjoyed in the warm embrace of kith and kin.” This Holiday season, I had many such warm embraces. It was full of joy and laughter. I don’t really feel like a travel log is necessary of my holiday events, nor do I think that would be of interest to many, but I would like to share some thoughts about the holidays and some pictures that I took along the way.

The Holidays should be simple and beautiful, and in their simplest form the Holidays are beautiful. These first two pictures were taken in Pennsylvania while I was visiting an old friend and his family for Thanksgiving and driving to meet up with another friend. Simple beauty is all around us during the Holidays, and the message that we share during this time should be like this church, blended in with the landscape. It doesn’t need to be elaborate or fancy but rather fitting and in its right place.

At the Holiday gala my company furnished its employees I was what some might call a dancing fool. I loved it. I danced along side my peers, my supervisors, and the top executives of the company. We all were dancing and we all were enjoying it. The Holidays should be enjoyed. Feelings of doubt, fear, and stress should be forgotten and left at the door. Making the most out of the moment and enjoying the Holidays for what they are and what they are worth is what should be remembered, not the anxiety and despair.


My friend Smash is a great example of enjoying the Holidays. Even though she was busily trying to finish her law school finals she found time to be with friends and family and even break out the great Christmas decorations. Her tree was one of the most beautiful trees I have seen. I saw many Christmas trees this year and each was unique and beautiful because each was a transformation of something mundane into something glorious. The Holidays should be focused on making that which appears to be common or even out of place feel welcome and special. It is a time to build up relations so that the coming year will be spared the tiresome and worn out struggles and unnecessary suffering.


By popular demand:

I went to New York City to celebrate the New Year. This was my first time being in NYC and I liked it a lot. My time in NYC was spent with people that I had never met, with the exception of one person who I met 4 months ago, staying in an apartment that was not mine and which I had never been, doing things that I have never done before. From this experience I was inducted into the NYC subway system, ate at a great diner, met some amazing people who I will have continued relations, met a stranger and learned about a way of living that I have never known and was taught a great life lesson, had a life changing experience at a McDonald’s, found strength to pursue something that I thought was out of reach, felt what it was like to freeze my fingers to the point where I could not feel them and as they warmed up they burned because a stranger asked me to take a picture for them while on the Brooklyn Bridge, saw the world from a different view, forgave a stranger, recognized my pride, and etc.

My point is this; sometimes the traditions that we burden ourselves with during the Holidays become more like a chain that has to be carried from year to year because we think that it is a necessity in order for the Holidays to be great. Sometimes the chain of tradition needs to be broken. I am a firm believer that, to a degree, traditions are, with some exception, a hindrance to growth and life. Traditions might remind us of the past and the way things use to be but what about the future and the way things are going to be? I was part of several new “traditions” this holiday season and I am most grateful for that. They gave new meaning to my Holiday celebration and made me feel like what I was doing mattered and made a difference in the present. A need was recognized and adjustments were made to make way for new experiences to fill in where the old could not.


This is the only photograph I have of me in NYC for the first time.


My fingers were so cold at this point that I didn't care that the pictures were too blurry to see much of what they were trying to capture.

The New Year's gang



I leave you with a short video of the New Year fireworks from Central Park and my New Year’s wish for you. Enjoy.