Before I begin, as I’ve done in years past my plan for the remainder of 2025 is to keep things a little different here on the blog. I’ll still be posting something each week but it’s hopefully going to be more about contemplation or inspiration rather than tips or techniques.

It seems as though, once again, 2025 has been a rough year for more than a few people that I know. Several of my friends have been struggling with what they want to do with the “rest of their life”.

Many people, including me, have been on an introspective journey. Sadly, introspection does not always correlate to insight.

Introspection is arguably the most universally hailed path to internal self-awareness. After all, what better way is there to increase our self-knowledge than to look inward and understand why we are the way we are?

Self-Aware

For every external struggle there is an internal one at play. Often times, it’s best to look inward first!

When we reflect, we might be trying to understand our feelings (“Why am I so upset?”), or trying to figure out our future (“Why can’t I move forward?”). This can tend to stir up negative emotions.

In truth, we should be trying to generate more positive emotions. To do this it’s better to ask what caused the feelings (“What is going on in my head right now?”) or (“What would make me truly happy?”).

At times, asking “what” instead of “why” can force us to name our emotions vs. simply experiencing them. This, in turn, seems to help us stay in control.

We can spend endless amounts of time in self-reflection but emerge with no more self-insight than when we started. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take the journey.

We just need to concentrate on WHAT we are feeling vs. WHY we are feeling a certain way. The why questions typically tend to help us better understand events in our environment. While the what questions are generally better at helping us understand ourselves.

My Struggle

Personally, I had a very difficult summer. And I’ll be brutally honest here. Most of the struggle was driven by all the political drama and rhetoric here in the United States. I tried my hardest to look past most of it. But some things were just too difficult to ignore. By mid to late July, I’d had enough.

In an effort to shield myself from all the vitriol I chose to “pause” my personal Facebook account. It wasn’t long and I could sense myself starting to feel calmer, freer, less burdened by all the rancor.

Then in September, something happened that rocked me to my core. Someone I admired was murdered…assassinated on a college campus. Along with countless millions of others, I wept, I screamed, I prayed. This was a tragedy of massive proportions. It dominated most of my thoughts for the majority of a week.

In my lifetime I’ve been witness to three other assassinations but none impacted me the way this did. This assassination is yet another reminder of the kinds of evil that our nation – dare I say, the world is up against today.

This horrific event, for me, represented a pivotal moment in the history of our nation. I do not pretend to know in which direction that pivot will lead. I just knew that I needed to reevaluate a lot of things in my life.

My Journey

September was a huge turning point for me. I started taking stock of how I’d let so many outside sources negatively affect the life I was leading. I spent weeks asking myself all the right “what” questions hoping to better understand what was going on inside.

At one point I remembered a very wise piece of advice I’d gotten years ago; “You cannot let things over which you have no control actually control you!” And there it was. I had relinquished control and I needed to take that back!

My introspective journey has been a valuable one. I had to re-visit all that is truly important to me, for my own health and well-being. It didn’t happen in an instant. Truth be told, it’s still a work in progress.

But I am lightyears ahead of where I was in September. I have started to remember what keeps me sane, happy and productive.

And I just want to tell you how much I enjoy what I do here on this blog. I’ve been writing here since early 2023. If you’ve read my “About Me” and “About the Café” pages, you know it was a long journey to get to this point.

This blog was my retirement plan. And I tell people all the time that I am so much happier in my retirement life than I was when I was working.

I guess Mark Twain was right… “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” That’s retirement for me 😊

My goal has always been to help you find new ideas and learn new techniques for YOUR projects.

It’s doubly important to me now that the digital world is changing more every day; almost at a staggering pace. Surely, it’s hard for most of us to keep up with all the new technology. That’s why I do what I can to teach you something new every week.

Thinking about this reminds me of a famous Chinese proverb: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime”.

Thank you for following me and reading my posts. I hope by giving you the tips and techniques that I can, I will help you find useful solutions and you’ll be creative for a lifetime!

Final Thoughts

As I’ve said, I am doing better but I have to be vigilant so I don’t get lost in the struggle again. I try to keep my mind on the positives and remind myself that I am responsible for how I react to the outside world.

“You Say” by Lauren Daigle is one of my favorite songs, especially if I’m feeling lost or conflicted. I’d encourage you to give it a listen. Just click either the song’s title at the beginning of this paragraph or the image directly above. I always find myself in a better place when I close my eyes and listen carefully to every word!

Thanks for reading this week’s ponderings. Remember, if you have any suggestions or questions please don’t hesitate to “Message Me“. Check back next week for more reflections! Click “Follow Me” to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!