No matter what someone else did or any of us did in 2016…
It’s time to look forward.
Face it. Some people are scared out of their minds as they look to the future.
Have empathy.
Others have gone through unexpected hardships, be there for them.
While last year was a weird one on a political level, it was also a year that saw lots of other changes going on.
It’s December 28th as I type these words on my laptop. The final week of 2016 with almost a week before this article is published.
Celebrity deaths like Carrie Fisher, her mom Debby Reynolds and George Michael were all over social media in the last couple of days. Add them to the list of big names that the world lost.
This morning I saw the obit in my local paper that a woman that I’ve known, Helen passed away at Christmas time. She was a member of our church and in the neighborhood outreach that I was involved with for the past 3 years.
Earlier today my wife and I had brunch with an old high school friend, Steve and his wife Lesa who were in town for about 5 days. Steve’s dad passed away years ago but his mom is still around. My own parents never made it to 70 passing away in 1998 and 2001.
Death is a part of life, as the saying goes and I don’t want to get stuck there or actually any of us to get stuck anywhere.
Stuck is not a good word, usually.
So today and in the days to come, I urge you to appreciate the past.
Even the crappy parts.
The lessons we learn are from the crappy parts. Don’t get lost wishing for the good old days, or you’ll be left behind.
Cherish, laugh, learn, listen and love.
Let’s embrace 2017 as another year to change the world, one day (sometimes one hour) at a time.
I’m in the middle of reposting the 5 most shared articles I’ve published in the past 12 months. As we get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas, this reminder is from last November:
There is a video on social media that is calling out Starbucks for their choice of an all red cup for the season. I won’t link to it but you can do your own searching and come up with it.
The guy in the video says that Starbucks hates Jesus. Here, let me quote him directly,
Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus
Sorry but this is so un-Christlike.
About a year ago, I reached out to a church inviting them to participate with our church in a project to benefit the neighbors in our neighborhood. One lady, who was not a member of either church but is actively leading a Christian prayer group in the neighborhood, came up to me and told me I should not invite the other church because the other church supported homosexuality. Her comments surprised me, and saddened me. Sorry but this too is un-Christlike.
What is Christlike?
Instead of creating hate and division, how about showing grace and mercy? Instead of judging with our human eyes, minds and hearts, how about helping by demonstrating a willingness to serve?
Saturday I was blessed to be part of a group of volunteers that raked leaves of 30 yards in the Frances Slocum neighborhood of Fort Wayne. You can see more here.
Let me tell you how this works. A few weeks before the Leaf Raking Day, we put announcements on social media, in the church and school newsletters and bulletins. The event was open to anyone and everyone. It was not limited to people connected to Holy Cross School or Church. It was not limited to people in the Frances Slocum Neighborhood.
This is the 3rd year we have had this event and the concept is simple. The concept is to be a blessing and be Christlike in giving of time and energy.
Of the 30 homes that had their leaves raked in preparation for the city of Fort Wayne street departments leaf collection next week, only 3 were requested. Two from the church and one from the neighborhood association. The rest were houses we did in the past or ones that we noticed needed help.
There was not “qualifying” involved. We didn’t ask if they knew Jesus, if they were Christians, if they were poor, if they liked gay people, or if they were, well anything.
We just went to work. About 50 volunteers ranging in age from 6 to 76. After lunch I double checked to see if we got all the houses we were planning on raking and noticed that three were missed by the crew. So a few of us who were left went and made sure those homes were taken care of too.
This is just a tiny example of being Christlike. It was a blessing to those who needed help with their leaves. And it was a blessing to our hearts as we served.
The Christian Battlefield isn’t fought in a coffee shop, or in a public forum. It’s doing good, one person at a time, (sometimes in groups like the leaf raking project). Who can argue with that?
If you are connected to me on Facebook and have had a birthday recently, I may have “memed you” on Facebook.
I’ll show you some examples in a second, but here’s the reason.
Facebook can be a wonderful tool to stay in touch with others and see what they are up to and share glimpses into your life too.
I am a pretty open book and will connect with both business and personal connections on my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Scott.Howard.aka.ScLoHo along with Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. But here’s something really cool about Facebook that you are aware of if you use it… Facebook tells you when your friends birthdays are so you can wish them a Happy one.
Because Facebook favors visual messages over text only messages in their algorithms, if you include a picture when you post, it will get more views.
So here’s what I started doing when I had the time. When a friends birthday was coming up, I would search thru their Facebook photos and find one that was fun and playful. Download it, (sometimes crop it) and then run it through an online meme generator and then post on on their Facebook page.
You can do this too in 5 minutes or less and create some extra smiles with your connections. Take a look:
Lee Tobin roots for the Phillies
Cappy works at the same place as Lee, thus the same silly hat.
Some pictures are fun
Some pictures are a bit wild
You never know your friends until you explore the pictures they post on Facebook!
I like to use pictures where their mouth is open
Sometimes you have to be creative with your captions
This is so much more fun than talking politics on Social Media!
What caught my attention at the time was how effective Gmail was at filtering spam. It was virtually fool-proof. Still is, although there are a few that slip into my inbox each month.
But I receive up to 150 emails each day, not counting the spam emails which alone can top 100 each day. Do the math and you’ll see why I’m impressed.
Here’s a screenshot from my gmail spam folder the other day:
A sample of the spam email I receive
Those emails are automatically routed into a spam filter in my gmail account. Also if I get some spam that makes it into my inbox, I just press a button and it will automatically be filtered in the future. You can also tell gmail to NOT filter certain emails to spam.
Also, see all those spam emails with attachments? Those could be very dangerous. Do NOT open unless you want to risk infecting your computer and companies systems.
I highly recommend you switch to a gmail powered email address, just to save yourself time of sorting through spam. And here’s a few ways to do it. Google each of these:
You can set up your old email account to start forwarding all new incoming email to your gmail account.
You can even export your old emails from your other accounts and import them to your new gmail account.
You might want to simply send a “here’s my new email address” to all your contacts, but I would still recommend doing the other two steps.
Import your email contacts into your gmail account and then stop sending emails from those old accounts. Your contacts will get the message, except for your 95 year old Aunt Agnes.
Google’s gmail service is also available for businesses and you can keep your old business account name. For 10+ years, my email address @ScLoHo.net is really a professional gmail account. It’s because of this spam filtering feature that I splash my email address all over the web.
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