😄🌟👉2025 & Friendship & De-stressing

 So this year we have entered the second quarter of the 21st century.  That is, of course, if we consider the year 2000 to have been the first year of the 21st-century.  This is of course how we have come to view our decades, centuries and millenniums, so I will also choose to accept this as being how we define these time periods.  I only mention this because I am a crazy stickler for details.  Anyway, what I wanted to say is that I think that people at this time are under a lot of stress.  We all have personal stress along with stress about the state of our country and the wider world.  It seems that at this time in human history, it is impossible to be disconnected from a much larger picture that extends beyond our own personal bubbles in life.  We are now five years past the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and while the worst of that is behind us, life has continued to deliver plenty of new challenges.  Perhaps it is all connected. This is probably the case.  In fact, I think it would be stupid to believe that everything was ever fixed.  Life has not gone back to any pre-COVID-19 pandemic normal and it never will.  I didn’t really believe this before, but now I can understand that events and the evolution of life are all connected to everything that has previously taken place.  As I said before, I think people at this time are under a lot of stress.  I have been reflecting on this and the feeling that I am having is that now more than ever is the time when we all need to grant each other some grace, understanding and kindness.  It is something that we all can do to, in someway, counteract all the challenges that we, our country, and our world are facing at this time.  May we all offer each other whatever we can of our friendship, kindness, and understanding. 

Just one additional reflection for today.  This doesn’t of course mean that this will be the last one. LOL  It seems to me that people are moving toward being a lot more relaxed and casual and perhaps honest in a lot of ways.  Personally, I like this.  Whether it is about how we dress, interact with each other, or whether or not we excuse ourselves from feeling obligated to conform to our cultural norms that were created by people who came before us, I believe in adopting an attitude of choosing less stress.  When the realities of human life and experience evolve and old practices and ways of living become unhelpful and impractical, human choices and cultural norms will necessarily adapt and change. I understand that this has obviously been the case all through history.  In reflection, I think it is to all of our benefit to be happy for any kind of cultural changes that aid progress in our lives that helps us to live better and eliminate unnecessary stress.  I believe that grandma’s way of doing things will always become outdated as time marches on.  This is because new generations live in their own time and not the past.