F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Xmas

Merry Christmas To All!

by

Merry Christmas! (© F. P. Dorchak, December 22, 2016)
Merry Christmas! (© F. P. Dorchak, December 22, 2016)

This year has been head-spinning in many ways…many good ways! But, man, has it just flown by! Time is…fleeting, as The Rocky Horror Picture Show says. The past (in certain terms) is behind us and the future (in certain terms) before us. So where does that leave us?

In the present moment. All we really have is the present. So is it really any wonder that Christmas packages are called presents?

I enjoyed as much of the present moment as possible throughout this year, and I hope the rest of you did, too!

And I know there are other holidays out there. I wish you all the peace and love and joy you also celebrate.

I thank all of you who—in your own, sometimes most personal ways—for helping create a better world for yourselves and everyone else. Many of you perhaps don’t even realize this. Doing so can be as easy as keeping good and positive thoughts in your head…as well as doing the more public acts. The point is, doing good in the world is as easy as doing good for yourself and your immediate circle of influence, because everything affects everything else.

I thank my wife, Laura, for her love and in being the kind and gracious person she is. For staying with me…and for continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank my family—both near and far, nuclear and extended—for being themselves and continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank all my friends—both close and acquaintance—for being themselves and continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank all of you who invited me to all the literary events I went to this year. I am ever humbled by your invites! Thank you!

I thank Lon Kirschner for his incredible cover art! Thanks, Lon!

I thank Mandy Pratt for all her efforts and dedication (which continues!) on editing and proofing my short stories. Thank you!

I thank all my writing friends for being who you are, for writing your wonderful blogs, for writing stories that are important to you. For being open and supportive to the rest of us who are not at your levels-of-success (i.e., thanks for not being snooty). Thank you!

Any group or individual I may have missed, it was not intentional. I thank you, too!

To those of us who require a little extra work in various aspects of our lives…I wish us all the very best at becoming and being the best person we can be throughout the rest of our lives!

So, I send out massive amounts of love and peace and joy to all on this day that many of us celebrate for many reasons, not all of them religious.

Peace.

Love.

Joy!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

Merry Christmas To All!

by

Merry Christmas! (© F. P. Dorchak, December 22, 2016)
Merry Christmas! (© F. P. Dorchak, December 22, 2016)

This year has been head-spinning in many ways…many good ways! But, man, has it just flown by! Time is…fleeting, as The Rocky Horror Picture Show says. The past (in certain terms) is behind us and the future (in certain terms) before us. So where does that leave us?

In the present moment. All we really have is the present. So is it really any wonder that Christmas packages are called presents?

I enjoyed as much of the present moment as possible throughout this year, and I hope the rest of you did, too!

And I know there are other holidays out there. I wish you all the peace and love and joy you also celebrate.

I thank all of you who read and followed my blogs, Instagrams, tweets, LinkedIn, Pinterest boards, About Me, and Facebook. I thank all of you for reading my stories, short and long. I thank all of you for being my friends and family. I thank all of you for being who you are and remaining true to who you are.

I thank all of you who—in your own, sometimes most personal ways—for helping create a better world for yourselves and everyone else. Many of you perhaps don’t even realize this. Doing so can be as easy as keeping good and positive thoughts in your head…as well as doing the more public acts. The point is, doing good in the world is as easy as doing good for yourself and your immediate circle of influence, because everything affects everything else.

I thank my wife, Laura, for her love and in being the kind and gracious person she is. For staying with me…and for continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank my family—both near and far, nuclear and extended—for being themselves and continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank all my friends—both close and acquaintance—for being themselves and continuing to put up with me and all my weirdness. Es.

I thank all of you who invited me to all the literary events I went to this year. I am ever humbled by your invites! Thank you!

I thank Lon Kirschner for his incredible cover art! Thanks, Lon!

I thank Mandy Pratt for all her efforts and dedication (which continues!) on editing and proofing my short stories. Thank you!

I thank all my writing friends for being who you are, for writing your wonderful blogs, for writing stories that are important to you. For being open and supportive to the rest of us who are not at your levels-of-success (i.e., thanks for not being snooty). Thank you!

Any group or individual I may have missed, it was not intentional. I thank you, too!

To those of us who require a little extra work in various aspects of our lives…I wish us all the very best at becoming and being the best person we can be throughout the rest of our lives!

So, I send out massive amounts of love and peace and joy to all on this day that many of us celebrate for many reasons, not all of them religious.

Peace.

Love.

Joy!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Merry Christmas To All!

by

Merry Xmas! (Image by [no machine-readable author provided. Alsandro assumed (based on copyright claims] GFDL http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html or CC-BY-SA-3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/], via Wikimedia Commons)
Merry Xmas! (Image by [no machine-readable author provided. Alsandro assumed (based on copyright claims] GFDL http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html or CC-BY-SA-3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/%5D, via Wikimedia Commons)
I really love this time of year!

I love all the trappings, the fun, the feelings-of-love that run rampant come the Christmas timeframe.

Yeah, and I also like the lights, the ornaments, and all the “pretty colors”!

I’m not a traditionally religious guy. In fact, I’m not religious at all. My beliefs are my own, but I love all the fun that goes into this time of year…the giving of gifts…the receiving of them (oh, come on—you know you like getting as well as receiving! There’s nothing wrong in admitting that!)…the getting together. Reaching out to family, friends, and the world. To see how others “view” me in the fun and excitement of receiving well-thought-out gifts from others (yes, and I do the same when I get gifts for others…we all talk freely about giving…but no one talks about the receiving)!

I love the Christmas lights, the merriment, the decorated trees—I actually love wrapping gifts! It’s fun “hiding” something that I hope people are going to like…and looking forward to seeing them tear into it when given to them!

I do it rarely, but I also like holiday baking…and I just did some yesterday, making some Slovak apricot and poppyseed rolls. Love those things. Haven’t made them in a couple years…though I clearly need more practice….

I know we all celebrate in our own ways…many talk about the “reason for the season” and all, and that is their right. Many like to go to church…and that is their right. I do not like going to church one bit…if I go (aside from funerals or weddings and that kind of thing) it’s purely for family reasons. I allow each their own belief systems…and I allow all the joy of their expression!

So, please…allow everyone else around you who doesn’t believe as you do the joy of their expression. We all enjoy and celebrate Christmas for our own reasons…don’t trounce upon them or look down upon them like some poor, lost souls. Because many of us are not poor, lost souls. We’re just as excited and joyous in our own beliefs as you are of yours. Greet us with the smiles with which we greet you…give us the respect with which we afford you.

So to all, I wish you a Merry Christmas—enjoy it as you want to, but do enjoy it!

Merry Christmas, From WestJet!

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Okay, I don’t care what your thoughts on commercialized Christmas or Xmas are, focusing on Santa or on any religious meaning, this was really cool, what the Canadian airline, WestJet, did for some of its passengers. What the people of the company did. Read the story here.

As the article says, it’s nice to know that with all the bad out there, there are still those who try to do some good.

Do I care that it “only” comes at Christmas time?

No.

I care that it happens at all.

We like to bemoan, “Why doesn’t this kind of stuff happen throughout the year,” but do we really believe that, or do we just like to complain? There are all kinds of people and companies who do this kind of thing throughout the year, at differing levels of activity. And, sure, you could complain that it’s a marketing ploy. You could.

Orrr…you could just enjoy the caring and giving spirit of the simple act in and of itself and allow yourself to be swept away by the emotion of people helping people at all. About people trying to make the world a little better at all. About people trying to brighten other people’s lives at all.

And if you still can’t find it within yourself to see the good in people or this wonderful act, then maybe you should look at your own self and outlook on life and how your actions and thoughts contribute to making the world a better place in any way.

Oh, and WestJet says that since they met and exceeded their goal of 200,000 view (they actually got over 27 million views in a week), they are also going to donate holiday flights to charity.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Related articles

A Christmas Story

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Merry Christmas to one and all!

And to those who celebrate any other holiday within this timeframe, I wish you all the very best and all the same well wishes!

But…what does Christmas mean to me?

A Red Ryder-carbine-action-two-hundred-shot-range-model-air-rifle-with-a-compass-in-its-stock-and-a-thing-which-tells-time.

I have no issue with the religious celebrating Christmas as they do…I just do not share your religion.

But.

I still enjoy the season just the same!

I’m not of the traditional religion. Nor non-traditional. I’m just not…”religious.” To me Christmas means peace. And joy. Among other things, it also means being with family. Enjoying their company, and their company enjoying your company. It’s the spirit (yes, “spirit“) of giving—and receiving. It’s reliving Christmases of old…experiencing Christmases of new. It’s enjoying many people enjoying (or trying to!) the season, and therefore life itself. Its people enjoying their own versions of Christmas, both religious and not. It’s one huge time of year where most people try to make a concerted effort to be a little…nicer.

Lovely, glorious, beautiful Christmas, upon which the entire kid year revolved.

Okay, tackling you to get at the last Xbox 360 with Kinect or Kindle, or cutting you off for that parking spot as they spill their piping hot Starbucks into their laps, notwithstanding.

And I’ll take one day a year over zero any time (but I know the number’s quite higher)…with the optimistic hope that such behavior will carry over a bit more into their daily lives. I enjoy the spirit of everyone trying to be a better Human and hope that people will stop killing each other and politicians will start acting like the adults they’re rumored to be.

But, that’s not all.

It means watching my favorite Christmas movies! Eating my favorite Christmas food! Writing Christmas cards and letters! Christmas trees and all the trimmings! Colorful lights! Festive music! Admittedly, I look forward to seeing what others give to me (and, heck, yeah, it’s fun)—and look forward to how they feel about what I give them (this is just as much fun)! It’s the metaphysical “feel” of the season I try to experience in my own, personal, metaphysical way. I love the snow and hope for the proverbial “White Christmas” (as a kid, that’s what we had every year, no exceptions—upstate New York).

So, maybe I did a good enough job explaining what Christmas is to me, maybe I didn’t. But it’s my version, and allows for other versions to coexist. Christmas may have started for one reason (religious) or another (secular), but as is the case with other things in life, it has taken on more in its journey through the ages. It means many things to many people, but it all seems to join at various versions of family, peace, love, and understanding. Let’s all try to be so accommodating.

And a Red Ryder-carbine-action-two-hundred-shot-range-model-air-rifle-with-a-compass-in-its-stock-and-a-thing-which-tells-time.

Perhaps not.  But I love that movie–A Christmas Story. It’s one of my favorites, as well as It’s a Wonderful Life. So, go on, rent them. Watch them.

Just don’t shoot your eye out in the process.