Our series is approaching its end and we have but a handful of posts left. If you want the series to continue and haven’t already sent a post over, you have maybe 2 days to do that.
Today at home, we continue not to be as we are in New York still, although today is our last full day there and we will be flying home late tonight. We have been so excited about being in New York and if you’ve been following my wife or I on social media you’ll have seen all the places we will have visited. But tomorrow we are home.
Today’s post is from Bina Briggs, who you can find on LinkedIn, Threads (@binabriggsltn), and X (@PlainTalkingHR). Bina is another of those who I’ve never met face to face but feel, through Zoom calls and interactions on social media, that I know her very well indeed. She is the owner of Plain Talking HR and has run that business for over ten years, having held other HR and non HR roles through her career. Bina is an incredibly positive and supportive person, someone who I can’t imagine ever saying or thinking anything negative. Her book, The Red Thread, was published in 2021 and is available here.
Over to Bina:
Here I am again, having thought and rethought about this year’s Advent Blog theme of “Don’t Want to Go”, it conjured up so many different nuances. Once again, with best intentions, I failed to deliver the #Adventblog in November this year, even with poor Gary Cookson’s gentle reminders.
So here goes, what it’s worth, my take on the subject.
Having read all the 26 blogs so far as I am writing this on the evening of Boxing Day, there were so many common threads all along, kept nodding my head in agreement to my fellow blog writers’ posts.
One thing stood out for me that everyone made a valiant effort to overcome that feeling of negativity and once done so, enjoyed the occasion of where they had to be. I took a lot of comfort in not being the only one having these moments of euphoria of accepting invitations or booking events, all these shiny glittering objects of desire beckoning me to go and participate in the festivities and yet, often as the event starts looming near the date, I have misgivings of why the hell did I say yes! Well, 2024 has taught me one thing for sure. Be open to opportunities and if it feels right, just go for it.
2024 has been a year of new connections, new opportunities and also the realisation that I’m not forcing anything to happen. Everything’s taking a natural course. It’s all working out and so when I’m supposed to be somewhere, it just happens and turns out to be wonderful, magical even. Those times that I don’t make it, intentionally or unintentionally, well, they were not meant to be so just keep moving on!
One of my earlier feelings of “Don’t want to go” were very strong. At a tender age of just under 5, going to school at the other end of the town in Kampala, I had to take a school bus on a 30 minute ride or so. After a few days of being there, didn’t like one of the teachers as she was strict and shouted at us kids all the time. So, the way I dealt with it was to miss the bus and turn up home after a few minutes, long enough after my Dad had gone to work. So, this lasted 2 or 3 days at the most! Mum started taking me to the bus stop, about 10 minute walk from the house. She’d wait until the bus had arrived, deposited me on the bus, spoken to the conductor to keep an eye on me until I got to the school and in the school building. It took me a while to settle in as was really petrified of the teacher. After a while, another teacher took over, totally different! We all loved her. I settled down in my studies flying in my grades thereafter.
Throughout my life, there have been occasions when not going was not an option. It just had to be done, had to go. People who know me, know of my story of coming to the UK. There were no options but to come to the UK for various reasons. Looking back, it was meant to be! One of the life lessons I’ve learnt is that when one door is closing, the tendency is to try to cling on or hanker after what we think is lost, don’t want to do through the next door that’s already open for us. The key is that there is a door already open for us, often we are so busy looking back that we miss it! Now, I have learnt to step right through the open door and take my chances as that’s what’s meant to be!
Before I end here, my grateful thanks to Gary Cookson and his predecessor Kath Griffiths-Lambeth for curating the #AdventBlogs over the years. I felt like saying “ Don’t Want You to Go” and yet, here we are, time does not stand still for anyone, so only remains for me to say Welcome Daniel Taylor.
I look forward to 2025, I will welcome it with open arms as a new, but dear friend guiding me through my journey once again over the next 12 months, resisting the urge to say “Don’t Want You to Go to 2024.
I wish you all a Very Happy, Healthy, Loving and Prosperous New Year – with one last thought; that no matter what the New Year has in store for us, whether we feel like going or don’t want to go, everything will always work out in the end. xx
I smiled as I read this. Bina is always one of the last to contribute a post to this series, and said this year she’d break her habit and be one of the first instead. Every couple of weeks she’d tell me that her post was nearly done and yet here we are in January again! But it wouldn’t be a series without Bina, so I am pleased she put it together no matter when it goes out.
Bina is right that things will usually work out in the end, so our fears about not wanting to go to places are, whilst valid, often temporary. Bina has a way of encouraging positivity, and this shines through in this post.
What lessons have you learnt from difficult periods in your life working out well in the end?
Till next time…
Gary.
Recent Comments