Are you a human doing or are you a human being? Better yet, are you being human to those around you?
After taking a full week off from the usual pressures of daily life, let alone the holiday season – I have found a few things that I’m ready to begin sharing here. I have been able to observe something in the past week or two – that keeps coming up, again and again as I see so much frantic activity around me.
Here’s the quote I’ve been kicking around as the holidays start to wind down this Friday:
Are you a human doing or are you a human being? Better yet, are you being human to those around you?
I saw a ton of humans doing, frantically. Pressurized. Lips pursed. Small steps rushed through doorways. Too many people just not happy this season. Doingness, if you will, was rampant.
I have just come back from a weeklong sabbatical that had me traveling a lot of miles, and for many of those miles discussing some fairly intense topics. One of these topics has to do with seemingly ‘normal’ people absolutely losing their marbles during the holiday season.
I can say that I saw some incredibly intense reactions in my past week from people that should have been much more relaxed in my estimation. For example, on the roads…
I saw numerous people on the roads here in the DFW metroplex, among other areas, literally cutting people off in standstill traffic to get that extra six feet ahead – only to remain stuck at the red light anyway.
I saw numerous vehicles blowing by at 90+ MPH while having passengers in the backseat, presumably children.
The final day of school with my kids, I had a guy cut me off while pulling out of the suburban development here in North DFW. Never happened before in this area on a school time drive.
Later that same day, a seeming teenager wandered out in front of me, while I was thankfully going much slower than the speed limit, while she was looking the opposite direction while she was on the phone. I was able to stop well ahead of her realizing that she could have been hit.
Unfortunately, I also witnessed at least 5 extremely serious accidents either happen or happened just prior to my driving by. The last week prior to my holiday break, I refused to drive at night – I took an Uber instead – things were in a word, frantic. Even the Uber drivers I discussed this with – said that they were amazed at how people were conducting themselves. I had that Uber drop me off at a nearby sauna for a midweek, mini retreat. I’m sure there were many others out there racing to the nearby mall to get in the last minute shopping, not this guy.
And that is just on the roads.
I can tell you that in every situation mentioned above I was deliberately focused on maintaining my chill vibe and slowing things down more than usual. By doing so, I began to notice something else around me.
There was a palpable level of stress and pressure that so many were operating under, as the days ticked off closer and closer to Christmas. And I kept reminding myself, that I had an incredible getaway adventure planned that would take me completely off the grid for a few days in a way that I had not experienced in nearly two years.
I found myself in a spot that was outside of Texas, hundreds of miles from home, and totally at peace. I had the space and the time to decompress from the day to day pressures, and the seeming holiday crush that was entrenched around me.
I found myself able to recharge my energy, as the last month was an incredible push on a few fronts – not so much due to the holidays – just end of year timing and commitments that had to be satisfied.
I found myself able to finally kick a long standing cold I had been battling.
I found myself getting clearer and clearer by the day on where things are headed in the last few hours of the year.
I found myself also hitting the high beams of my dreams and goals for 2019.
I found myself deliberately not DOING anything, rather I was much more focused on BEING present. I also discovered that by BEING HUMAN to those that were seemingly the most stressed resulted in some really enlightening conversations with complete strangers.
It even resulted in someone delaying an intermission for 2 more minutes so that I could return to my seat for the remainder of the show I was at. An unexpected gift from a stranger that truly appreciated the ‘thank you’ that I shared.
My biggest wish for all of you in the coming week is to take some time for yourself and ask if you are all wrapped up in the DOING of the season.
Or…
Are you BEING yourself and BEING HUMAN to those around you? The doing will always be there waiting.
This is the time to take a few minutes and consider how you are being to yourself and to those around you. Take stock of the most important relationships in your life, and ask yourself what could you be doing to make them even stronger.
I’ll be sharing some more thoughts in the coming days on how I view my prior year, some plans for the upcoming year, and maybe even a few predictions for 2019.