Tag / blogging

by Gibran Cruz

This Christmas Feels Heavy, and I’m Letting That Be Okay

I don’t know exactly why, but this Christmas feels heavy.

Been thinking about it since the start of November, when everyone seems to get into the holiday spirit. Maybe it’s the cost of everything, how even simple things feel stressful instead of fun. Maybe it’s everything happening in the world, the constant noise, the feeling that so much is out of my control. Or maybe I’m just tired—bone-deep tired in a way that rest doesn’t immediately fix.

Whatever the reason, I’m learning to let myself say it out loud.

I don’t feel especially Christmassy this year. And for the first time, I’m allowing that to be okay.

This season looks quieter for me. I’m doing less. I’m simplifying. I’m skipping some of the extra gatherings and saving my energy for the people under my roof. Not because I don’t care—but because I do. Because I know my limits, and I’m choosing not to push past them just to meet an expectation.

For a long time, I thought Christmas had to feel magical to be meaningful. That if I wasn’t fully in the spirit, I was somehow doing it wrong. But this year, my goal isn’t magical—it’s manageable.

If I can make it feel warm and special for the ones I love, I’m letting that be enough. If all I can do is get through it with some sense of peace intact, I’m counting that as a win.

I’m also realizing that joy doesn’t always look the way we expect it to. Sometimes it’s not loud or sparkly. Sometimes joy looks like rest. Sometimes it looks like boundaries. Sometimes it looks like choosing peace over pressure and letting go of the need to perform happiness.

I’m not doing Christmas wrong.

I’m doing the best I can with where I am right now—and that has to count for something.

If this season feels heavy for you too, I hope you know you’re not alone. And I hope you give yourself permission to let this Christmas be softer, quieter, and kinder than usual.

Sometimes, that’s exactly what we need. 🎄✨

by Gibran Cruz

Share A Little Stardust

Decide to live your life like a great adventure. Dream big and make it happen. Life is full of opportunities… grab them, make them yours and help others see theirs too.

Make giving a part of your nature. Don’t love others thinking about what you can get in return, but expecting to build beautiful things that will last forever.

Be the architect of your life and your dreams. Design your life thinking that you deserve the best out of it.

Share love as it is stardust and you want to share pieces of a shooting star before it’s gone from our lives.

One last thing: find a place where you belong and try to help others feel like they can belong too.

by Gibran Cruz

November: I have Goals!

It’s been a while since I wrote down my goals. As part of the community I used to contribute to, we wrote our goals for that month. There is something about actually writing them that make them seem more real. At leas it feels that way to me. I feel I need to start doing it again, so here it goes…

In November I will:

  1. Save some money. I started to save for my passport but I didn’t finished. Don’t have my passport yet, so that is one of the things I’m planning to do before the end of this year.
  2. Finish some of my drafts. I’ve been feeling kind of down lately and couldn’t find purpose in writing. That is something we need to find in everything we do… I’m hoping I can finish some of the drafts I have saved and post them very soon.

Relationship Goal:

  1. Wait. It’ll all be over soon…things will change.

 

 

 

by Gibran Cruz

She Has The Most Colorful Mind

If you ask me if I blog, I would answer that I have a blog. If you ask me if I am a blogger, my answer would probably be something like I don’t think so. I started writing when I was 3 years old and I haven’t stopped ever since. I needed a way to let out everything I had in my mind before my mind exploded in a million words that I had no idea how to express. I had to write everything because that is the way I learn. I still have notebooks filled with hundreds of quotes from songs, movies, people…things my mind thought were worthy of keeping like a treasure.

I didn’t changed my notebooks and pens for a blog. I didn’t even knew what a blog was until Ahmad asked me to open a Tumblr account so I could see the pictures he took. After I did it was like a light bulb suddenly turned on. What if I could store all the things that came to mind in a blog instead of having to keep a million pieces of papers without misplacing them? (something I always managed to do, misplaced all of them). I started with a thing or two. My blog became like my own private digital notebook. I was the happiest woman alive. Blogging became my outlet. I didn’t need followers, I didn’t need people to read or like or re-blog… I just needed to say what was on my mind, what I felt and couldn’t say in words for someone else to hear.

How did all that changed? My LDR became too difficult for me to manage. Writing long letter like messages to Ahmad wasn’t enough. Answering every question I got in my social accounts about relationships, writing letters filled with romantic things for other people to use on special occasions or making up things for them to say in situations suddenly wasn’t enough.  I was about to explode because I’m not very good at managing my feelings. And then it hit me! I had a blog!

Joining  LDRBN was the best thing that could happen to me. I directed my efforts towards long distance relationships because that was what I needed. I needed to believe that what I was (I am) fighting for is possible.Blogging has helped me manage all the feelings that I kept hidden inside because I couldn’t say them; for some reason I can write about them. It has enable me to reach more people than I did before. The best feeling is when someone tells you that because of something you wrote, they  aren’t afraid anymore to be in a LDR. By writing about something so simple yet complicated like a long distance relationship (MY LDR) not only can people be inspired…It continues to inspire me to fight for what I believe in and the person I believe in. After all, it’s all about him (and my time bomb kind of mind).

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To read more about Blogging and see the writing prompt that inspired this post, head to the LDRBN site. If you are in a LDR and want to be part of the experience, APPLY HERE. Don’t forget to mention my name  Gibran.