Last Updated on April 20, 2020
How many times did we hear that taking a break would make one see things more clear?
I, at least, heard that too many times, but never had any desire to try it. Until last month, when I decided to take a break not only from writing and reading blogs, but also from thinking at any online stuff.
The less active you are, and the less you interact with the exterior, the more chances you have to listen to yourself, to bring your deepest wishes from the subconscious to your conscious mind.
Conclusions? Lessons? Hopes? Resolutions for 2008? A bit of everything. And the biggest of all:
Never go to sleep with unspoken things on your mind
In 2007, I’ve witnessed so many deaths:
- my best friend from childhood – age 38
- one of the best professors and business partners I’ve had – age 60
- one the best creative directors I’ve worked with – age 35
- my mother in law – age 65
- my godmother
- my last grandfather (passed away at 102 years old!)
- two of my favorite Romanian actors – around 60 years of age.
Leaving aside the actors, I had unspoken things for all other people on this sad list.
Every now and then I was thinking “I’m going to call my friend tomorrow, because…”. There was always a “because” which made me actually never make those phone calls.
By postponing to tell people things you want them to hear from you, you may find yourself one day with all those words condamned to stay in your head forever, as the ears they were meant for were no longer available to hear.
If there was some form of afterlife, perhaps they know by now what I never got the chance to tell them, but those phrases and dropped intentions are still haunting my brain every now and then.
- Do you have something to say? Say it now, before it is too late. Tell people how much you appreciate them. Tell them you love them now. Sometimes, even for a 30 years old person tomorrow may never come.
- Have you read a blog post which you’d like to add a comment to? Do it now, don’t leave it for later.
- Have you discovered a great blog? Write about it, contact the author, make friends, make conversation, subscribe to its feed. Now, not tomorrow.
I read in many places that most of the people don’t use feed readers, they eventually subscribe by email. I was doing the same, until I ended up with some 20,000 unopened items in my inbox (I know, I subscribe to a lot of blogs). So, two days ago, I forced myself to use Google Reader (where I also had subscribed to all those blogs, but never opened it again to actually read my subscriptions). The result? I just love it! RSS just makes subscribing and reading information so easy, that one could save at least one hour every day by not checking lots of blogs which were not updated, only to find out that there’s nothing new to read.
This is what I’m going to do now: I’m going to give a big virtual hug to all the online people who meant a lot for me in 2007. May the New Year bring you passion and creativity, love, inspiration, determination and power to keep on pursuing your goals (and also lots of diggs, sphinns, stumbles, reddits…).
Who are these people? Well, if you are now reading this, you are one of them. I personally thank you for taking time to visit my blog, and if you are not sure I’m also visiting yours, please leave a note somewhere here, on any of my posts. I’ll appreciate that.
Hi Simonne,
This is a very thought-provoking post. I’m the type who holds too many things back… I’d better find a way to fix that.
Feed readers are a bliss indeed. I’m only subscribed to one blog via email. All of my other subscriptions are allocated in Google Reader. I’ve tried Bloglines too, but I didn’t get used to it.
The distribution of virtual hugs is always an excellent idea. It seems that nowadays many bloggers are only interested in virtual aggressions. It’s so refreshing to see someone taking the opposite direction. 😀
Simonne, only you can go from death to tips on blogging and RSS. But I do have to agree with what you said about not postponing things for later. I myself am guilty of that – don’t have time to respond to the email now, telling I’ll reply later, and sometimes that later never comes, I forget, or it’s too late. I’m working on it though, and this year I was better with replying to the emails right after I was done reading them. I should also get on the phone soon, and call all my friends who I haven’t talked in ages….
As for RSS, at first I was using Firefox bookmarks, but was finding hard to keep track of the updates, then I switched to Google reader, but then sometimes I wasn’t logged in there for days, and weeks, and was simply visiting my favourite blogs directly. Now I’m using Thunderbird RSS reader. I use Thunderbird for my email, and it’s easy for me to check for new RSS and see which blogs get highlighted indicating the available updates. I like it better this way. Plus, since those posts are already loaded in my Thunderbird, I can read them offline as well.
Hey, Karen,
Aggresion is far away from my way of being. I’ve always been the most flexible element in my groups, and I strongly believe that Earth would be a better place if everybody seeked only peace and understanding.
Vivien, that was the turn of my thoughts as I wrote this post. Initially, I wanted to write about the RSS wonder, but I remembered all those people who passed away last year, I remembered that I went to the hospital with my father in law every single day, from March to August, and I never went upstairs to actually see my mother in law, because I was sure I’ll see her when she’ll be back home… till one day, when we found out she’ll never come back home… I suppose she knows by now why I didn’t go to see her.
Leaving death aside, your idea with Thunderbird RSS reader is just great! I’ll switch to it, as it seems the best option so far.
As for not leaving words unsaid, it’s excellent advice (I carry guilt for some of the things I should have said to loved ones, but never did…does everyone have that?)
As for comments (lol) many of my friends have Blogspot blogs, and Google sure doesn’t make it easy to comment anymore! Hope your New Year is wonderful.
Hi Shelly, thanks for your thoughts. You are right, comments on Blogspot are a real pain (in a virtual space, ha,ha!).
The New Year is excellent, I hope to keep it like this until it ends.
Simonne, we would all live fuller lives if we remembered to also live for today instead of continually pushing important relationships into the future.
I’d second Vivien’s suggestion to use a software reader like Thunderbird’s RSS functionality. I use Newsfire on my Mac because a software rss reader is faster than a web interface and my power and dsl goes out more often than I’d like.
Hey Aaron, thanks! I’ve just switched to Thunderbird yesterday and I like it. I also managed to import the feeds from Google Reader. However, I didn’t find out how to subscribe to new feeds directly from the sites. I need to copy the feed addresses and then add them by pasting. Anyway, Thunderbird is a great choice.
You opened my eyes and inspired me to write now something to let know a dear friend how much she means to me and how sorry I am for her loss. Simonne, thank you for revisiting my love and reminding me of what really matters in this life. I was too busy working lately and somehow I stopped paying attention!
You are welcome, Mig, don’t worry. I was also very busy and I didn’t find the time to connect with people, but maybe this year will be different.
hey Simonne: this msg is so close to my heart now as I lost my friend recently.. she lived about an hours drive from me and we would call each other but always say we need to meet now, but that ‘now’ never came! its the most important thing we can do, to reach out to people who mean something to us.
I use Google reader as well but somehow feel inundated with all the subscriptions.. my be i should try thunderbird, i use it for my home email…
so heres to you – a huge virtual Hug… may you have many more visitors here this year!
Hi Pearl, I’m sorry to hear about your friend. I’ve read your post about this sad event.
Thanks for the hug, I appreciate it a lot. We shall see what this year will bring us.
What a well-written and thought-out article. Thank you for reminding me not to let these things go. I’ve had people die, too, and so wish I could have just one more hour with them so we could talk; get closure.
Thank you Susann. Your comment means so much to me! Death is part of life, and still so painful.