2021 required much adaptation. Here's to a 2022 where that adaptation becomes acceptance, and that acceptance moves from the individual and echoes throughout a new and improved culture.
The Holiday Radio Show is far from the only holiday tradition that has been adapted for a second year running. Based on data gathered for this piece 75% of survey participants modified their traditions due to COVID-19 precautions last year—and interestingly, an equal percentage are doing so again this year. Their reasons are as personal as the traditions themselves, but they all align with one of the key reasons that the WPRB Holiday Marathon has weathered COVID-19 and lasted over three decades.
This practice as a form of journaling has been shown to promote feelings of closure, reduce anxiety and prepare us for the next phase of our lives.
2020, a year that no one expected, warrants closure. This one took many drafts and more thought than some, and may take more unpacking as well, but, in the end, for me, it fits. I truly encourage you, try it this time.
In these new times, with new practices, is even more vital to keep up traditions. Hence, my annual six word stories of the summer.
Let's continue to fight Corona. Let's build a better normal not just a new one. A normal where every race, color, gender identity and nationality has justice and safety. A normal where family is not just a byproduct of adult work life, but a homestead which blossoms the crop of our career from its soil.
Ten years, ten articles, ten themes. Read on, reflect, and perhaps think of your own holiday traditions. How they started, what they mean, and why they’re so important every year.
The point of journaling—the reflection, can be done in as little as just six words. Not only do the same areas of the brain get triggered, but I assert that even more reprocessing of our history occurs when we attempt to work through the puzzle of what we’re trying to memorialize in a shorter span of words than a free-write.
I find that summer and winter are the journeying and reveling seasons while spring and fall are more transitional, thus the former two serve better for reflection and the latter for action.
“By all these lovely tokens September days are here, With summer’s best of weather and Autumn’s best of cheer.”...
