All Saints’ Day, also known as All Hallows, Day of All the Saints, Solemnity of All Saints, or Feast of All Saints is a solemnity celebrated on 1 November by the Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations.
Today is the first All Saints’ Day in our new church. I remember those who have gone on before and have joined the company of saints who have gone on before. God blessed me with those people and I am deeply grateful for those who have made my life better.
If you haven’t posted anything original in awhile make a point to do so starting in November and going through December. Both months are times to be grateful and to be generous. Enjoy creating new things and enjoy the fun of blogging again. One can also catch up on the blogs of others and offer them feedback too. Once you have started keep it up. Keep on blogging good people.
Fresh starts can mean new opportunities.
There comes a time in everyone’s social media life where they must unfollow/unfriend people on various platforms. Facebook is one of those places where it is a chosen community of people you are connecting with and sometimes their posts can either be repetitive and sometimes offensive. Granted there no two people who agree with each other 100% of the time, and that is OK. It’s only when those people ramp up the rhetoric, whether it be political, religious or social commentary that can be very negative, that you have to make that decision on your connection status.
In America we are in the midst of an election campaign season where we will go to the polls in 2016 to elect a new president and other federal offices. Canada just completed that cycle recently and sometimes being on social media can be challenging when it comes to politics because it can be personal. It’s the constant barrage of posts that come from friends who post mean spirited things that can test your relationship status.
Religious and social commentary can be divisive too. We have all seen the issues such as faith, gender, orientation and the like that people fall on different sides of. To me it’s OK to disagree on some things, but you know it’s amazing to see the venom on your screen from people who you thought were reasonable and kind. It can be disappointing to see comments that are out there for the world to see and you wonder what is the source of their ire.
I know there are people who have unfollowed/unfriended me for various reasons and that is OK. Perhaps this is an opportunity for all of us to examine our friendships and who we are as individuals who have a right to feel the way they want to about all the stuff going on in the world. It is OK to be sad when your friendships change, that is life.
Then there are sports rivalries and that can be just as contentious as politics, religion and social issues. Especially on rivalry days.
Unfriending, Unfollowing, it happens and you have to move on. Sometimes you just have to cut ties.
I am distracted, we are all perhaps distracted about something in our lives. So much is going on in my head that I am not listening well. Being distracted impacts my relationships with important people in my life. I think we could all agree that we are over stimulated with all sorts of things coming at us. Even when we aren’t using our electronic devices we still find ourselves distracted. Life seems to be more complex than in years past and I am not sure it will get better.
Too many of us are so burdened that we aren’t paying attention to the people that really matter in life. Maybe I need to cut a couple things out or perhaps I need to alter my behavior and learn to prioritize what I am doing in any given moment. I am wondering about how getting older makes it easier to be distracted or not? My friends what is your experience with paying attention, is it harder for you as time goes on, what do you do to focus on the main things in life.
Today is Friday…let’s be productive, solve problems and other stuff like that. I am glad to be at the end of another week. We are all working for the weekend though. Have a great day my blogging friends.
The Tony Burgess Blog 