Merry December: The Work Behind Spreading Cheer

courtesy/bitsofpositivity.com

Don’t worry all… I’ll spare you from having hear my singing. I’m not horribly tone deaf or anything, but you still don’t want to hear it… trust me. However, I’m definitely all for spreading cheer. That’s part of why I have this blog and this particular theme this month. For anyone who’s recently joined or just passing through, I like to have an occasional reminder of what’s happening here at this blog. It started on Facebook with doing the month of Thankfulness for November – a little game I saw played by others on that site. Come the following February and I thought “ya know… this should be about loving something every day since it’s ‘the love month'” as I call it. I did that for February and March was “Lucky March” and my dad suggested that I make that concept into a blog. So I did. Every month has a different theme, though I do on occasion write outside the theme or at least stretch it a bit by doing select-a-sets (music sets of three songs) or other musings.

It’s “Merry December” because of the all the holidays, naturally. This has turned out to be a little more difficult than I had thought – finding a new angle for being “merry” is a little tougher than I had imagined. This is okay though, that’s really the idea. The more challenged I am, the better I will get in more ways than one – at least that’s the hope.

So all that said… I’ve been on cloud nine for the past week or so. I was trying to put my finger on it because it felt a little out of nowhere. I finally figured it out… it’s because of my volunteer efforts. I’ve been so busy the last couple of weeks trying to make sure I’m hitting all my commitments. This does a lot of good for me in more ways than one. For starters, it means I’m finally busy. I finally have something that’s keeping me busy, keeping me from getting bored and having a lot of time on my hands to sit there and think about being lonely or being far from family and friends, or whatever it is that bothers me. I have a lot less time on my hands to be gloomy.

The other thing about volunteering, at least the way that I do, is that there’s a chance to bring others along for the ride. In recent weeks, I managed to get some ladies from my community to help out with some care packages to deployed military men and women. There was a total of six packages sent to three people. It was such a cool deal getting everyone on board. It helped to make me feel useful in that I was heading off my own project, sort to speak. I’m not a manager type and I’m not really a leader, but it was nice to be sort of in that role. Again, I suppose it stroked my ego a little bit but in a good way; a way that I’ve needed to have done because my life has been empty for a while. This helped to fill it.

It was great being able to spread cheer to those in my community by getting them involved. It was really great to know that those packages are getting sent to folks who really need to be supported. It’s nice to know that they’ll know they aren’t forgotten during this special time of year. It’s important to remember that the real reason for volunteering is for the person or persons receiving, not for yourself to feel good or pat yourself on the back. That’s certainly not why I do it; that’s definitely not why these ladies helped me out either. We did it for our military men and women. Feeling good about it is just a happy side-effect.

The other thing about being on cloud nine for me is that this is my chance to spread some cheer a bit more locally and not through a volunteer group. I always really enjoy having the chance to sit down, write up some Christmas cards and remind my family and friends how much I love them all and to show it through something simple, a little card. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. I agree that showing appreciation and love shouldn’t be just one time of year, but I also feel there’s nothing wrong with setting some time aside to do so. We get so busy in our lives that we forget to do these things (shame on us) but having some time set aside is better than not and never showing love and appreciation.

I’m not the most talented person. I’m not always so convinced I’m that great of writer, but I feel like the one thing I do well is listen. I think I’m a pretty good friend. This time of year is a great way to flex that muscle if you will and it’s nice to know that I’m accomplishing something. Again, I do what I do because it’s the right thing to do but it does come back to me in a positive way. I believe in karma and I’d like to think that I’ve done well in my life because I work to spread cheer and try and give out positive vibes. I realize that sounds like ego, but it’s not meant to be. Positive feelings produce more positive outcomes, etc. It’s a snowball effect and I hope it continues. Who knows what other positive things can happen by keeping up the positive vibe. So I highly recommend to folks to get out, do something positive because it will come back to you in a good way.

Dec. 9 Notes:

• Wouldn’t you know it – today is Christmas Card Day – a great way to spread cheer!

• National Pastry Day – yum!

• National Brownie Day – yum again! Brownies and pastries are a wonderful way to spread the cheer. Just some thoughts everyone.

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