What kind of gifts are you bringing with you this Holiday Season? Oh, I’m not talking about the kind of gifts you go to a store to buy, I’m talking about the important gifts only you can bring along. I’m talking about bringing gifts like love, kindness, wonder, caring and support. Knowing what to say and just as importantly, it’s knowing when to say it. Maybe it’s knowing when not to say anything at all. Thanks for reading A Common Man’s Wisdom! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.✓ We get so caught up in trying to find the perfect gift that we overlook that wemight just be that perfect gift. We overlook that only those things we hold in our hearts and souls might be a perfect gift. We overlook that  our time and their time merged together might be a perfect gift. Too often we overlook that it’s OK for their perfect gift and our perfect gift to be the same thing at the same time. Allow yourself to feel deep within yourself whenever you’re searching for a perfect gift for anybody. In other words, not only see with your eyes but listen to your “gut” but then follow it! In the same way, allow yourself to feel when you’re considering what you’d like best this Holiday Season, then position yourself to make it happen. Gift giving is a tricky thing, isn’t it? Too often, in this fast paced, 24/7/365 world we live in, we’ve forgotten what some of those most important gifts are a smile, a hug, something or someone that might trigger our most wondrous memories.  Maybe it’s a handwritten note or heartfelt time that we spend together. So, my wish for you this Holiday Season is a heart and soul filled with more gifts than you could ever imagine. If we do it right, as metaphysical as it might seem, we can spend time with someone in the present , that might involve things that happened in the past and when it’s time to say goodby, both of our futures have been improved. (I know that last bit might be a little hard to follow at a single glance. Please feel free to reread it until it makes sense to you.) No matter what faith  you might follow or even if you don’t celebrate during this Season, I hope you’ll find yourself both recognizing these kinds of wonderful gifts. This goes for both the gifts others are giving you as well as what gifts you might not have realized you’re giving to them. One final message… Just like with any kind of gift someone gives you, if you’re lucky enough to receive one of these special gifts, please remember to say thank you. That can be your incredible gift back to them. Ironically, you might have to convince others that they’ve actually given you anything! People aren’t used to realizing just how valuable this kind of gift can be. Don’t  be shy about admitting just how […]

*Disclaimer* There are so many good things in the world and so many more that haven’t been revealed yet.  That being said, we’re in that roughly one month time period between Thanksgiving (…in the U.S.) and Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years when traditions play such a huge part in our lives. As I started thinking about some of those traditions, it became sadly apparent that we’re losing some parts of them and some other parts of the rest of our lives as well. So, that’s how I got to where we are now. Gregg Our memories are a tricky thing, aren’t they? It seems they work one of two ways, we can either forget or lose memories inadvertently (The memories fade away or we loose track of them or a physical situation such as Alzheimer’s or some other mental condition.)or we can choose to forget for a myriad of reasons. (Including boredom or lack of stimulation)  What I’m talking about here is the latter. Choosing to allow some people, places and/or things to fade away.  I understand all our lives are different but I’m afraid that we as friends as well as a society might be losing more than we bargained for.  So what am I talking about? Here’s a quick look at just some that come to mind.  Let’s start small. Cursive handwriting is something many of us have grown up with. I just found my original Social Security card from when I was 13 years old. There, scrawled out in perfect cursive handwriting is my name. Mrs. Carnahan, my 1st grade teacher would be so proud! (No, I wasn’t still in 1st grade when I was 13! 1st grade was when we really began learning how to write in cursive handwriting.) Technology seems to be a main cause here. There are states that require cursive handwriting to be taught but sadly, it looks like technology is winning the race.  Civility definitely belongs on the list. Take a look at the political scene. It’s bad and getting worse recently. Next time you’re at a fast food place, watch what the counter help and see what they have to put up with on their minimum wage shifts.  Every year cars and trucks have change after change. Now it seems that in the not too distant future, Gasoline engines might be on that endangered list. As is the case with most things in life, it can be either viewed as good or bad. This one, I chalk up to be a good thing.  I mentioned technology earlier. Technology might also be behind the decline of people actually speaking to other people! It almost sounds like I might be making a joke here. I’m not. It’s so much easier now to use a text or hop on line even for a major purchase or purpose. Sometimes that works but other times a simple phone call or a trip to the store might help us find the right dimensions or answer questions we might not even know we need to ask. If we start […]

I was speaking with a friend of mine that I’ve known for a lot of years not long ago, and she dropped a quote on me that absolutely blew me away!  “May peacefulness enjoy being more than dreams to you.   May they guide your heart and spirit in everything you do.”  Like I said, it blew me away! She didn’t know who said it, but she thought it was a Native American saying. Full disclosure, she is Native American so of course that’s what she thinks!🤣  Anyway we started talking about the quote and how incredible this world would be if more people were thankful this Thanksgiving for their peacefulness. If more people were able to use that peacefulness to guide their hearts and their spirits as well as the hearts and spirits of others, to find and feel their dreams come true, what an amazing result we’d see. As the Holiday season quickly comes upon us, I think this quote might not just be something for us to remember,  but to share with others too. What a great toast it would be at a family Thanksgiving or get together this holiday season. What great, “marching orders” it would be for our own hearts, as we go step by step into the unknown of our future. Here is that quote again, I hope you’ll find that it makes as big of an impression on you, as it has on me and my friend.  “May peacefulness enjoy being more than dreams to you.   May they guide your heart and spirit in everything you do.”   Peace     …Gregg