Christmas Season

Well, I come up with the strangest ideas in the strangest places. I have been sick the last few days laying on the couch wishing something worthy of keeping my eyes open was on tv. I was thinking tonight as I tried to clear my head with a Shower Vapor Tablet that listening has nothing to do with hearing and everything to do with what I say. Well at least at work. Since we get graded on our calls. And finally after 4 months of being on the phone. I have scored the highest I can on a call that is scored. I had thought when we started that it was going to be easy. It is not. Not for me anyway. I have seen people from my training suceed that were worried sick and people that I thought were naturals not get it. I am not with the first group. One of the things your scored on is listening to the customer another is to respond in kind. If there is nothing I do I listen. I have been responding to listening by helping them fix their problem. Funny, that does not cut it. So I have finally as though hit over the head with a brick realized that listening is not about hearing it is about what you reply. At work they want to hear you repeat back to the customer their reason for calling. Which gets me to where I am going with this Christmas Season.

Advent (the 4 Sunday's before Christmas) starts next Sunday. Which for me has always been the time of year that I feel drawn to Church. Not because it is Advent but as the Holiday suggests in preparation for Christmas. I have always been reminded of my Grandmother Helen and the Holidays at her house. Nothing flashy but beautiful. Her house was decorated beautifully. A tree, not sure if it was real or fake. Lights, some tinsel and ornaments and a star. A Nativity scene at the base of the tree with a choir of Angels nearby. A wreath on the door and a chalk board that we signed in on when we went to her house and a row of small candy canes hanging near the door. Her house was like her. Prepared for Christmas. 

I have no memory of a single gift received from Grandma Helen. But there was Christmas Spirit, Joy, Cheer, and Food. Grandma's family was from Hungary and she made delicious treats for Christmas. Cheese Danish to die for and poppy seed rolls and nut rolls were some of our favorites.  Anyway you can see I have drifted from the subject.

I was also thinking tonight that if I were Queen that Christmas would have nothing to do with ads in a newspaper and commercials on tv. It would have everything to do with giving but nothing to do with what you receive.

So I thought, here in my blog I am Queen and in my kingdom Advent would be like Lent but instead of giving something up for a few weeks in preparation for Easter. We could give something back in preparation for Christmas. At work as I listen to customers not only do I hear their reason for calling but sometimes I hear the reason they called. Get it! Sometimes they call to have a problem fixed but sometimes they call to be heard. Or as I have learned to be responded to. I do not repeat back to them their reason I respond in kind. Congratulations, so Sorry to hear of your loss. Sometimes the customers stick with me not their names but their reason for calling. A brain damaged Vetran who is a genius in a body that does not work as fast has his head anymore. A woman who no longer has contact with her sisters. A marketing manager that needs something to market.

Sometimes I get more out of the call than the customers or at least as much. So in the spirit of Advent and the Christmas Season (which as a reminder does not start on Black Friday it starts the first Sunday of Advent which this year is December 1 and goes through the 12 days of Christmas which begins on Christmas and into January to Epiphany) I thought in my kingdom which has 1 member the Queen we would respond in kind to not only my customers on the phone but to also greet or respond in kind to people I come in contact with in the real world and apply the same principle that if sometimes someone may say hello not to be kind to you but maybe for your to reply in kind to them. Maybe no one has said hello or Good Morning to that person all day or week. I would love for those of you that read to reply in kind not to me but to someone everyday between now and Epiphany. It is easy this time of year. My goodness it is Christmas. Be joyous not because you are finished with your shopping but because Christmas is coming. It takes 27 days to make a habit and we have 44 days to get it right. And by January my kingdom will be showing others that listening has to do with responding and nothing to do with hearing what people are saying. Good Luck and hopefully for the first time this year Merry Christmas.

Giving Thanks

I thought it appropriate this week that I speak of Thanksgiving. Now most of you reading this will sit down at some point on Thursday and eat the biggest meal of year so far. And most will say some sort of prayer of Thanks for the things you have and food on the table and the hands that prepared it. My father always mentions the men and women serving in the Armed Services that are not home with their family.  And then dig in. But maybe this week on this Thursday stop and be thankful for how blessed you are to maybe have a job and if not a job how thankful you are to be with your family, maybe even have a roof over your head.

As a reminder it has been only 19 days since Hurricane Sandy made an unexpected visit to our friends to the north in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other states upon the Eastern Seaboard. Some of those visited no longer have homes to be thankful for. They have their life to be thankful for. They may not have electricity or hot water but they still have their family together. Some may have lost family members but they still have the clothes on their back and a warm meal to eat being prepared by volunteers. In other words some people lost everything just 19 days ago. They are trying to find a way to get through each day, each week and the months to come without loosing their mind.

Hurricane Sandy is just one example of the tragic loss that people from all walks of life all over the world have dealt with this this year. But from the tragedy we are able to look at and appreciate the smaller things in life that we just assume we will always have.

I have a friend in New York that has invited friends over that live in lower Manhattan and let them charge their wireless devices, offered a hot shower and meal before they go back to living as those who lived in the same part of New York in the early 1900's with the advantage of batteries to power their handheld devices to warm their hands while the power is out and the temperature is low by the glow of their ipod or tablet. A laptop you no longer put a pillow on your lap to protect from the heat you can use it to warm your lap.

So maybe on Thursday evening when you are sitting home after eating a delicious meal prepared with love by someone you don't know how you would live without. Turn off the lights and the tv and the heat and think of the people up north that are doing the same thanks to Sandy for 5 minutes. First you will realize how long that is to be without, but remember those still without power have been doing the same for 19 days. Some may have days or weeks to come before the smallest luxury electricity can be restored. When you turn the lights and the tv back on remember that is a blessing because those without do not have that choice. They will wake up Friday not at 4AM preparing to go shopping because the retail world tells us we can get a better price before the sun comes up. Some will wake up cold and alone but being thankful for what they have left and to those that are truly blessed they are not worrying about what they lost for that can not be regained.

No loss this great can truly be recovered from overnight. Life goes on and each day, each moment is living proof that you too are trying to move on as well. You will not forget what you lost but maybe build a future that you never expected out of it. A future that has love and family and a home just not the one you thought about on October 28th for those in the north or for those in Aurora, Colorado July 19th or those in Gilbert, Arizona on May 1st. I could go on and on. About people and their tragedy which may not be a loss that had media coverage but a loss of a job or a loss of a spouse or a Grandmother or even a cat. All of these losses are tragic to those that lived through them and the recovery though the time may be different the process is still the same. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. They do not always come in order or one at a time but no matter what you do they will come.

On Thursday hug your family and remind them all how much they all matter. And be thankful what you have been given and accept what you have lost.

Happy Thanksgiving has a whole new meaning now.

Blogging

I received an email that I have been thinking about since I got it. The person had received a link to my blog and in return replied and said,

"I don’t do blogs, sorry, to much time without enough results.
I like to talk with people as a group to get feedback like on facebook not talk at people like on twitter or a blog."

Well I disagree. Time vs Results. The reason I write this blog is selfish. I never thought that anyone other than my close friends would be reading what I write. And as those of you that are close to me know I do not do many things that are selfish. Writing has been therapeutic and a relief from some of my memories. So the result has been that I come up with ideas on things to write about and they morph into something else.

I consider the feelings of audience and of those I am writing about.  I have always felt that Facebook and Twitter are the opposite that people say whatever they feel and never consider the feelings of others or how permanent their words are. And as a customer told me the other day at work. I am stupid when it comes to twitter. Again I just find that to be a way to blurt out a thought at the spur of the moment. Without any thought to the result.

Well enough about that comment. It does tie into the subject which is who I reach. I post a link on Facebook when I finish a posting and send an email to some friends but in return I get comments via email and the Blogger software actually shows me where in the world people have read my blog.

I love the comments. Another selfish act. Everyone likes to hear that they do a good job and that they have touched someones heart or head with a comment. I have always been one who works best when I receive praise. Though at times criticism sometimes causes me to try that much harder to succeed. But the map has been an amazing piece of information as well. I copy a couple of Brian's cousins that live in Sweden on my blog and based on the map they have read some of my posts. But a few weeks ago I glanced at the map and noticed France was highlighted, and on another post Germany and yet another was England but the one that got me was when Russia was highlighted.

This has made me realize that no longer am I selfishly writing for my self and sharing feelings with a few friends, which made me think if you the reader could say anything to the whole world what would you say. And since as my opposition believes there is no give and take in Blogging I would like to prove him wrong again. So please consider the feelings of the readers and those you write about. I try not to use names for just that reason.  So give it some thought and Post a comment. Share with me something you would like to get off your chest or out of your head. I in return will let you know how many people have read and where in the world your thoughts have reached.

Thank you all for reading my words and helping me through this time in my life.

And to my husband. Happy Anniversary babe.