Experiences – Life – Inspiration 🇨🇭🇯🇵

This Christmas, I find myself thinking about how divided the world feels.

I am writing this while moving between two places that shape me in different ways. My everyday life in Japan and my time here in the Netherlands. Watching the same world from different distances changes how things look.

From afar, the noise feels louder. Headlines are sharper. Opinions seem more fixed than ever. It often feels as if we are being asked to choose sides constantly, even in places where life used to feel simple and human.

Yet when I step outside, something else appears.

People are still living their lives. They drink coffee, walk their dogs, wait for trains, worry about loved ones, laugh at small things. In Japan, I see quiet consideration and space for others. In the Netherlands, I feel directness, openness, and a deep value placed on dialogue. Different expressions, yet underneath them, very familiar intentions.

Being between cultures has taught me this. Differences are real, but they are rarely the full story.

We live in a time where we are more connected than any generation before us. Through screens, messages, videos, and words, we reach across borders effortlessly. The internet gives us access not only to information, but to each other. At the same time, it can also magnify fear, certainty, and separation if we are not careful.

The digital world reflects us. When we approach it with curiosity, it becomes a place of learning. When we approach it with openness, it becomes a place of connection. And when we approach it with tension, it simply mirrors that back.

Christmas, for me, is not about perfection or agreement. It is a pause. A moment where the pace slows just enough to remember what sits underneath everything else. A shared humanity that exists long before opinions, borders, or labels.

I do not have answers for the world. I only know what I choose to practice in my small corner of it. Listening a little longer. Holding opinions a little more lightly. Remembering that behind every screen is a person shaped by their own experiences, fears, and hopes.

If there is a quiet wish I carry this Christmas, it is this.

May we allow space for one another again. May we stay curious instead of certain. And may we remember that connection does not require sameness.

To everyone reading this, wherever you are in the world, whatever this year has brought you, I wish you a warm and peaceful Christmas.