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Community

communityI have said time and time again how the real value in life lies in the experiences we have and the positive relationships we build. But which relationships am I talking about? All of them. Some of the relationships we may not even realize we have, also have a tremendous impact on our lives. These relationships likely include:

  1. neighbors
  2. acquaintances
  3. community
  4. strangers
  5. humanity

Of all five of these relationships, community is the most important. Why? Because Community encompasses all the other four.

I can’t stress enough the personal rewards that come with being active in our community; being community “oriented.” Whether its charitable events, fun events, or celebratory events, when we are participating in community events, we are cleansing our soul, and establishing/improving our relationships within our community. This means all the people in our community: friends, acquaintances, and even strangers alike.  And in the end, this rolls up to a good relationship with humanity as a whole.

When we participate in making the community a better place, others in the community notice and remember. The more we make our faces seen by those with influence in our community, the more we ourselves have influence too. These are subtleties that are the basis for our relationship with our community.

Being active in the community gives one a sense of belonging, a sense of pride in ones home town. And that feeling is supported by the people we live with within the community. It is truly a wonderful feeling.

With that being said, I urge everyone to get involved in their community in some way, shape, or form. Unsure how to start? Look for local events in the paper. Events such as fares, walks, fundraisers, and festivals. Most communities have a United Way chapter to reach out to. United Way literally has dozens of community events per year. They also have the names and connections of many other charitable and “community enrichment” groups locally one may be interested in.

Reach out, and be part of the community, don’t just live in it.

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Traditions

pumpkin_traditionI have said time and again that that life is all about relationships and experiences. With that in mind, there is no better way to foster both of these things than to have healthy and celebratory traditions. Yearly, monthly, weekly, or even daily habits we have within our groups (families most likely) that everyone takes part in and shares their ideas, experiences, and/or joy.

 

I believe we all have some type of yearly traditions. For most of us, we have the Holidays. Whether we celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Cuanza, Thanksgiving, New Years, Easter, Valentines Day, and of course my favorite, Halloween, we all find a reason to eat, drink, and be merry, or just have fun activities with our loved ones. But our yearly traditions don’t have to end there, we could have our yearly family vacation in the summer, family ski trip in the winter, hiking in the gunks in the autumn, whatever.

Many people even have monthly family traditions as well. I have heard of families that on the 2nd Sunday of every month go roller skating, to a drive in movie, or even just a family dinner at a fancy restaurant.

Weekly traditions are wonderful too. How many of us have ever heard of Friday family game night? Church on Sunday is a tradition too.

Daily, families gather around the dinner table to have dinner together ……. this is a tradition too.

 

I encourage ALL of these traditions. These traditions create the setting in which relationships are built, and some of our most joyous life experiences are had. These are the things we should be spending our time and money on. Not presents, toys, flashy clothes, elaborate appliances, or empty real estate.

 

Even personal traditions are healthy, as they still foster wonderful life experiences, and potentially start new relationships. They also to a great deal toward growing a persons relationship with themselves, and with humanity.

 

Personal Testimonial:

In my family we take the entire month of October to celebrate Halloween. We are absolutely crazy over it. My wife and I have a fascination for all things horror, gore, supernatural, and just plain scary. We are slowly but surely getting our little girl on board with this (horror is a tough sell to a child).  All October long, it’s all about Horror flix, costume design, pumpkin picking and decorating, and haunted events. We just can’t get enough of it.

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Ode to Jeans (“The things that remain” continued)

jeansWhether we are minimalists or not, I think we can all appreciate the value of a good pair of jeans. Durable, comfortable, appropriate for almost all weather conditions (the non-extreme ones), and strangely enough, always fashionable. If we look around I think we will find that jeans are at the very foundation of middle class wardrobe; they are our first “go to” when we are putting together our everyday outfit and don’t want to think about what we are going to wear. Jeans are such a practical and efficient choice for bottoms, that outside of the professional environment, they are my only choice for bottoms. Outside of my professional wardrobe, my entire selection of bottoms is just a short stack of denim; 7 pairs of jeans and 3 pairs of jean shorts. Let’s hit the benefits one at a time.

Durability – Unless we are doing hard labor in them, Jeans don’t get much wear and tear. Provided our waist size doesn’t change, and we aren’t doing hard labor, a good pair of jeans will last many years, maybe even over a decade. This may depend on the brand of jeans we are using. I have always had luck with Levis.

Comfortable – Well, not “sitting on a cloud” comfortable, but I have never heard anyone say “Argh, I gotta get home so I can take these jeans off” (unless of course it was a waist size issue).

Versatile – Rain, shine, snow, sleet, jeans are appropriate for all weather conditions. When the temp gets to 85-90, maybe then it’s better to put on the shorts.

Always Fashionable – Seeing a woman or a man in a pair of nice fitting jeans, that hugs their body in just the right way, is always attractive. Never goes out of style. Hasn’t even faded in it’s allure.

 

I have come to the conclusion recently that there is another type of clothing bottom that have come to be just as much of a “go to” for women out there. So I’m gonna give a quick shout out out to Yoga Pants and Leggings. I believe that these satisfy all the conditions above as well. Well, not quite as durable, but much more comfortable, equally versatile, and c’mon gentleman, tell me you are not checking out the chick in the yoga pants; yeah …… that’s what I thought.

 

So I have declared that jeans are the official bottoms of the minimalist. A short stack of denim is all we need to wear on our legs. And for the ladies out there, a couple pairs of Yoga pants (or leggings) would be nice too.