Month: December 2025

I am addicted to my Fitbit. Since I began running almost 50 years ago, I have kept track of my mileage manually and know that I have now run/walked over two circumferences of the world. The wearable device, my Fitbit, has been in my life for almost 15 years and I am compulsive about keeping track of not only mileage but the steps I take. I try not to judge myself related to this obsession, but I recognize its importance.

Wearable devices, according to AI, have evolved from specialized tools in the 1970s like calculator watches and medical heart-rate monitors. Today we talk about smartwatches, fitness trackers, and other sensor-embedded devices. The modern wave began in the early 2000s with Bluetooth connectivity. Since 2010 and about the time I began to use technology, wearable devices collected and synchronized personal data.

These wearable devices are useful for health and fitness tracking (e.g., steps, heart rate, sleep, stress), medical monitoring (arrhythmias, glucose levels), and other experiences. As sensors become more accurate, wearables continue to expand from motivating tools to companions for health, productivity, and personalized digital interaction.

I like being able to monitor my health and fitness. It helps me focus on healthy habits and challenges me to stay active, although I think I would be active, as I have been for years, regardless of the notifications.

Although advantages exist, there are drawbacks. For example, wearables collect sensitive personal information that may be vulnerable to breaches or misuse by companies or third parties. Further, wearable sensors are not perfect, and measurements can be inconsistent or inaccurate. I feel I am over-reliant on this technology especially if my Fitbit does not synchronize regularly with my phone. I must remember to regularly charge my watch. These devices can be expensive and may not be available to everyone.

I am happy to have the technology while also recognizing that I can resist my addiction from time to time. I want to be OK if I do not reach my step goal every day. Last week my step count was appreciably down because of the high winds, and I was fine with not trying to battle them. I also recognize that sometimes adjusting my daily goals is important. Nevertheless, I find the device remarkable regarding the information and motivation it gives me.

Christmas overshadows everything this time of year. It isn’t the only reason, however, to appreciate the winter season. I was reminded recently of how people celebrate different holidays and holydays during the month of December. I like knowing what is important to others.

I enjoy Christmas because of the fundamental rejoicing in the birth of Christ as the realm for Christians. The story of the heralded birth provides the basis for music, gift giving, and family traditions. For me as a red letter Christian, the holyday provides light and hope for the future. The message of Jesus’s life is kindness and love.

My Jewish friends celebrate Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, which commemorates the Maccabees’ victory and the miracle of oil that burned for eight days. These traditions include the lighting of a menorah, eating oil-fried foods like latkes and donuts, playing dreidel, giving gelt (coins), and gift-giving. The annual winter holiday celebrates both events, which resulted in increased religious freedom for the Jewish people. In 2025, Hanukkah started on December 14th.

National Bodhi Day, celebrated by Buddhists, marks Siddhartha Gautama’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. For several cultures, celebration occurs on December 8^th. The day commemorates Bohdi’s awakening to the Four Noble Truths: there is suffering, a cause of suffering, an end of suffering, and a way leading to the end of suffering. Celebrants often meditate, study scriptures, light lamps, and perform acts of kindness.

Kwanzaa is an annual celebration of African American cultures from December 26 to January 1. It culminates in a communal feast usually on the sixth day. Activist Maulana Karenga created it based on African harvest festival traditions from various parts of West, East, and Southeast Africa.

The Winter Solstice acknowledges the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. From this day on, daylight will be longer and nights shorter. This festival is celebrated by cultures from around the world. During this December global holiday, each culture marks the holiday with different traditions and rituals, such as brewing and drinking mulled cider, lighting lanterns, dancing, and gift-giving.

I am happy when someone wishes me Happy Holidays because it includes all the possibilities during this season. I am also pleased to be wished a Merry Christmas since that is part of my heritage and tradition. Regardless of the named holiday, all traditions embrace love, light, kindness, and joy. We all share common values and choose to demonstrate them in our own ways, regardless of the religious tradition. It is a time to rejoice in the goodness of the world. Happy Holidays!

I feel resonance when I am outdoors. The earth grounds me and the sun draws me upward. I resound when attuned to something bigger and deeper than myself.

Resonance has been on my mind lately. Scientifically, resonance occurs when something vibrates more strongly because it is driven at a frequency that matches its own natural frequency. Every object has a frequency at which it naturally oscillates. For example, when a musician plays a note, the body of the instrument vibrates and amplifies the tone.

I vibrate with nature. Beyond being scientific, it is a sense of alignment and deep connection with the natural world. It expresses an emotional and spiritual state where I feel attuned with the environment around me.

Being in nature provides an antidote to the chaos that confuses me in this world. Etty Hillesan’s statement resonates with me as she notes, “Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.” When I return from an outdoor Experience, I feel grounded and ready to face the contradictions that dominate my life.

I go to nature to clarify and organize my thoughts. Ideas come to me in my head, and the resonance drops my thoughts from my head to my heart. Although my writing over the years has been mostly in my head, I seek opportunities to express myself from my heart.

I resonate with various aspects of nature. For example, being near an alpine lake can give me a sense of calmness. Reaching a high elevation gives me a feeling of expansion and freedom even as I recognize that I am but a small piece of a huge world. I love seeing wildlife when I am out in nature. I feel a special bond with pikas going about their business of gathering hay for the long winter ahead. I take comfort in seeing a cow elk nuzzling her calf.

I have come to feel a special resonance with the full moon rising. The anticipation of the coming moonlight and the confidence that a moon will rise in all its brilliance, whether cloud obscure it or not, creates a sense of harmony between my inner emotions and the natural world.

Nature is my companion that brings me peace and insight. It reverberates with my heart and soul.

Unlike the old Alfred Hitchcock movie, I am delighted that the birds are regularly back in my life. It only took them two hours to find the buffet feeder after the recent snowstorm. Because of bears and abundant seeds sans snow, I waited until I thought the birds needed me.

I love birds. I am no birder, however, and do not aspire to be. I have tried going out with friends who are avid birders, but I lack patience. I enjoy moving quicker than one should when observing birds. I envy people who can hear bird songs and then look for that bird flitting about.

I took a trip to the Amazon Rain Forest years ago. I did not realize what I was travelling with vehement birders. We went to a remote tourism resort in the heart of the rainforest. To get to this wild place we flew, took a motorboat, and then a wooden canoe. My friends thought they were in bird heaven. I enjoyed the trip and the hours we spent in a lookout tower watching for birds. They identified over 70 new birds to put on their life lists. I wrote them down in case I ever decided to keep such a list, which has not happened.

I miss all the birds that lived year-around in North Carolina. My feeder there was always humming with activity. Fewer birds remain during the winter in Rocky Mountain National Park. Several years ago, friends who were birders spent a week at my condo in Estes. I warned them that not many birds would be found in March. I was wrong. With the thank you note they left, they listed 22 different birds that they had seen. I was delighted for them but also felt less expert on birds.

Unfortunately, I am worried about the birds. Statistics suggest that North America has lost more than 1 in 4 birds in the last 50 years. Habitat loss is the greatest threat to birds. According to research, bird populations in almost every habitat are declining. I lament the losses. I continue to advocate for birds and try to help them as I can.

I have set up two wooden stools near the window so that Gitch can watch the birds with me. They usually disaffect him. I watch them with my own solitude and enjoy my daily chores each winter of filling the feeder and making sure the ground feeders have an opportunity to feast on the mixture of sunflower seeds, millet, peanuts, and corn. Feeding the birds is a winter joy that brings me close to nature when I am indoors.

My students had a final project in my “Women, Work, and Leisure” class at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. I asked them to interview their mother, grandmother, or another significant adult who was at least a generation older than them. They were to use an interview guide to learn about the individual’s work and leisure life from childhood to the present. They recorded and transcribed the interview. They then applied what they learned to the research and major concepts we had been addressing all semester in the class.

One of the students came into my office to explain why it was not possible for her to interview her mother. She said her mother was hearing impaired and was hard to understand when she spoke. I suggested that the student give the interview a try and if it did not work out, she could interview someone else.

Several days later the student came into my office with tears in her eyes. “I interviewed my mom and then I sat down to transcribe the recording. It was hard to understand but for the first time, I listened and heard what she had to say. I learned so much that I never knew. Thank you for making me do this assignment.”

I was thrilled for the student. As often happens in teaching, I learned an important lesson that day, too. In future visits to my childhood home, I asked my mom questions about her work and leisure over the years. Like my student, I appreciated what I was learning.

My mother passed six years ago. Although I understood more about her childhood and years as an Iowa farmwife and a reading teacher, I wish that I had asked how she felt about her life experiences. I suspect I know the answers to some questions, but I long to have learned more from her before her health deteriorated.

As I get older, I contemplate questions that I now consider in my own life and wish I could ask mom to get her perspective. What would she say were the most important people in her life (sans her family)? What were her happiest moments? When was she the saddest? Who was the biggest influence on her life? What were the most important lessons she learned that might be helpful to me? What was her favorite memory of me? Of my sisters? Of my dad? Of her parents and siblings? What was mom proud of? Is there anything she regrets in her life? How did she feel about growing older and the physical changes that occurred? What were her hopes for her grandchildren, and great grandchildren? What wisdom would she like to pass on to them? How would she like to be remembered?

I know how I remember her, and I am grateful. I would love to talk to her again.