Happy Winter Solstice!

Happy Winter Solstice!

The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere. People around the world celebrate the occasion in different ways. Here are just a few of those ways.

In China, people celebrate Dong Zhi by getting together with family and eating special foods, such as tang yuan (glutinous rice balls), or dumplings. It is a time to celebrate the end of the year, and a turning point when yin energy transitions to the positive energy of yang.

Peru’s winter solstice, Inti Raymi, is celebrated in June and honors the Incan sun god Inti (Quechua for “sun”). The festival takes place in the city of Cusco. Festivities include feasts and mock sacrifices that honor historic rituals.

In the Southern Hemisphere, they celebrate Midwinter. Festivities include special meals, films, and sometimes handmade gifts.

The Hopi Indians of northern Arizona celebrate the winter solstice during Soyal. Ceremonies and rituals include purification, dancing, storytelling, and gift-giving. At the time of the solstice, the Hopi welcome the protective spirits from the mountains. Prayer sticks are crafted and used for various blessings and other rituals.

In Scandinavia, St. Lucia’s Day honors St. Lucia with the lighting of fires to ward off spirits during the longest night. Girls dress up in white gowns with red sashes and wear wreaths of candles on their heads in honor of St. Lucia.

In Japan, they celebrate TojiIn. The winter solstice involves several rituals and customs to welcome the return of the sun. These traditions include taking a hot bath with yuzu, a citrus fruit known for its healing properties, eating a winter squash called kabocha, and foods that contain the “n” sound to bring good luck.

The Persian festival Yalda, or Shab-e Yalda, is a celebration of the winter solstice in Iran. Loved ones get together to eat, drink, and read poetry throughout the night and to welcome the sun. The holiday symbolizes the victory of light over darkness.

Yule is one of the oldest winter solstice festivals. Its origins are complicated and difficult to trace. One tradition of Yule is the Yule log, still popular today in a modernized form. The original Yule log was supposedly a large log that burned throughout the entire festival, for as many as 12 days. A popular modern take on the Yule log is a roulade-style cake that looks like a log.

These are just some of the ways to celebrate the winter solstice. What are some celebrations that you are familiar with?

Remote Work and Office Humor

This time of year, one of two things happens: work slows down as people prepare for the holidays, or work speeds up as people cram in projects before it’s time to leave work for the holidays.

Recently, it’s been incredibly busy for me, so I think a good laugh about work is overdue. Humor helps the time pass more quickly as we count down the days until the holiday break.

Here is some random humor that I was sent recently. Please credit these jokes if you know who created them.

Ten Random Jokes to Make Your Workday

  1. My memory has gotten so bad it has actually caused me to lose my job. I’m still employed, I just can’t remember where.
  2. How do you make an employee smile at work? Compliment their work.
  3. Why did the scarecrow get promoted? Because he was outstanding in his field!
  4. During a business meeting yesterday, someone asked me about my background. So I told him about my education, career, family, hopes and dreams. Turns out he was asking about what was behind me on our Zoom call.
  5. The new “Reply All” button is unmuting your mic during a Zoom call.
  6. My favorite conference call game is “Guess the Background Noise.”
  7. Why did the pen get promoted at work? It had the write skills.
  8. Why did the employee bring a map to work? To navigate through the workday.
  9. What makes a spider such a good computer programmer? It knows all about the web.
  10. How do you make a manager laugh during a meeting? Tell them you finished all your work early.

And one more….

  1. Working from home is all fun and games until your chair and bed start merging into one.

5 Reasons to Join a Writing Group

Do you feel like you’re the only one in the world striving hard to achieve your writing goal? If you do, you’ve found one excellent reason to join a group. Writers often work on their masterpieces by themselves, stopping now and then to recall the spelling of a word or ponder whether to make the paragraph longer or shorter. But why ask yourself those questions when you could ask a bunch of like-minded individuals? Here are five reasons to join a writing group. 

Social conversation with like-minded people

Some writing groups like to get together to talk over a beer or a coffee. Now you might wonder how that’s different from socializing with friends. The difference is a group of writers talking about life, video games, jobs, or movies will eventually start talking about stories.

They’ll compare movie plots with plots in novels. They’ll talk about historical events and how those events can become plots in stories.

Life conversations revolve around writing. How does one find time to write if one has a full-time job? How do writers get inspiration for their writing? When is the best time of day to write?

Just being around like-minded people can get you in the mood to either start writing or keep writing, knowing that other people face the same struggles.

Discussions about writing

Writing groups are a safe space to hold discussions in-person or online about writing. Unlike casually chatting with your friend (who doesn’t write outside of work) about a novel you are working on, your writing group is not only interested in what you’re doing, but they can provide you with support. They empathize with your struggles when you have writer’s block. 

They know the pain when you forgot to save 1000 words because you shut off your computer by mistake at 3 a.m. Most importantly, they might have suggestions on books and other resources to help you write better or get over the hurdle of developing your protagonist.

You have a group of people who have been where you are and know what you’re going through.

Ideas, resources, and industry information 

A writing group that meets in person and has an online discussion platform can keep the discussion going after an in-person meeting. For example, if the group sets up channels on a platform such as Discord, they can share thoughts under specific topics, such as conversations for future get togethers, self promos for books, writing topics, publishing topics, and critiques of each other’s work. 

They can also share resources, such as writing books they recommend, and thoughts on industry trends for best ways to promote books, and what types of literature is most popular.

Accountability for writing goals

You can find people in the group who are looking for accountability partners. Some people find it difficult to find motivation to write or stick to their writing goals if they are easily distracted or overwhelmed by life’s challenges and distractions (good and bad).

If you have an accountability partner, you know you will report to someone at the end of a designated time period to tell them about your writing progress. Between the two of you, you don’t want to be the one who didn’t achieve your writing goals!

An audience

The most important reason for joining a writing group is you already have an audience. This is especially important if you are a first-time writer and you don’t have an audience for your work. Your writing group is there to support you on your journey to finish (or just work on) your writing project. You have an audience who will give you feedback and comments and encourage you to keep writing.

Key Takeaways

Joining a writing group has a lot of perks. You’ll be in an environment of supportive, like-minded people who face some of the same writing struggles that you do. They can help you with resources and advice and hold you accountable to your writing goals. Also, if you’ve lost the motivation to write, your writing group can inspire you to start thinking about writing again.

The Power Of Words

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If you had the power to save your friend’s life, what would you do to change their fortune?

Writers have the power to change lives with the use of words. A simple message like “It’s over” can break a person’s heart. Words like “I love you” can bring sunshine and everlasting warmth. Writing compliments and praises can raise another person and elevate their value.

One spider knew the influence of words.

If you’ve read Charlotte’s Web, you’ll know on one level, it’s a children’s story, talking about the cycle of life.

On another level, it’s a story about growing up and losing magic when a child can no longer understand animal speak.

What is truly amazing is one spider’s ability to use words to save the life of a friend. What would you do to change another person’s fortune?

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.” – E.B. White

Let’s Normalize Privacy and Discretion

You don’t know me. But I know your name and I know where you live.

Scary, right? Recently, I saw a video about protecting your personal details like your birthday, phone number, and address when businesses won’t do that for you. Scams are becoming more common, and businesses don’t need to make a criminal’s job easier for them.

The Potential Harm of Sharing Details

Sharing personal details can be harmful. Here are some examples: a doctor’s office or pharmacy that calls out your full name to everyone in the waiting room. Or the receptionist who asks to confirm your details by getting you to say your birthday and address so the whole room can hear it. 

Another example is the bank teller who confirms the large amount of cash you’re withdrawing by saying it loud enough so the people behind know how much cash you’re about to carry out the door.

A woman commented on the video that a staff member at a medical office said her full name out loud. After the appointment, a man she didn’t know called out her full name. He had been watching her earlier in the waiting room. He started to follow her out of the building. 

Can We Protect Ourselves?

We can be proactive, but the business needs to work with us. People have written their personal information on a piece of paper, only to have the receptionist read out all the details to confirm the details with the patient. 

Another method is to show a driver’s license. Some people have tried this, and said they got unhappy looks from the employee who seemed to think the method was a lazy way to avoid speaking (and for not sharing personal information with everyone in the room).

It’s not very discreet if you write down the amount you want to withdraw and the bank teller shouts out each one hundred dollar bill for everyone around you to hear. By the time you leave the bank, you will feel like a rob-me-I-have-cash target is marked on your back. 

One suggestion is to check in with reception at the doctor’s office, the pharmacy, or whichever office you’re waiting at. They quietly take your name and then give you a number. When they call you, they call your number, not your full name. It’s not as personal or friendly, but it’s definitely more discreet. More offices should try this.

Key Takeaways

Businesses aren’t doing enough to protect our personal information. They like to confirm our identity by asking us to say our full name, address, or phone number in a room full of strangers. Our safety from scammers or creepy people is not safeguarded. We can use some techniques to protect ourselves, but the business needs to cooperate for those techniques to work.

What do you think about how businesses protect your privacy? What methods have you tried?