By Lisa Manterfield
That’s me, living life to the fullest in trapeze class earlier this year.
I got caught out again this year with a bout of the Holiday Blues.
After a really fun and non-traditional Thanksgiving with wonderful friends, I headed into December ready to celebrate the holidays my way. Then Bam! I came down with the Holiday Blues.
There will always be things I wish were part of my festive season, like hand-delivering gifts to my family, shopping for small children, and creating the kind of Christmas I had as a child. But it wasn’t theses losses and what-ifs that gave me the blues this year.
Maybe it was the rainy weather that kept me indoors for much of the week. Maybe it was the end of year racing towards me highlighting the things that didn’t get accomplished this year. Or maybe it’s that Christmas doesn’t really feel like something to celebrate anymore.
Finally, I took my own advice, and that of a couple of friends, and dusted myself off. I bought a tree, made plans for Christmas Eve dinner at a favorite restaurant, and wrote and sent my cards. And then I made myself a cup of tea and sliced off a chunk of proper English fruitcake, and I curled up in a chair and wrote in my journal.
I made a list of everything good that happened this year—all the fun things I did (see photo, for one), the challenges I overcame, the goals I reached this year, the friends I spent time with, the family I visited.
And guess what I discovered? It’s been another great year this year. I have lived my life, perhaps not always to the fullest, but to the best that I was able. And I had a good time doing it.
That, I think, is plenty of reason to celebrate.
I started out excited for Christmas this year and then, bam…the blues hit me last week. Here, too, the weather has been gloomy and grey. As we made plans with family, they disappointed us as they so often do and I started to wish, like you, Lisa, that I had my own children to share the traditions I was raised to cherish. I feel like no one else carries on those traditions and we simply become a part of their celebrations, which are so vastly different from what mine would be. But, as usual, I pick myself up, dust myself off, and move forward. So as I write this, I sit amongst the gifts I have to wrap and I’m thinking about the cookies I will bake. Once again, I dig a little deeper and find my holiday spirit because it’s in there somewhere. And, maybe next year we’ll go away for the holidays like we always say we will 🙂
Lovely sentence:
“I have lived my life, perhaps not always to the fullest, but to the best that I was able.”
So true!
Wishing you a merry Christmas & all the best for 2015.
Thanks for the helpful post. I should follow suite and make a similar list. Overall, I am in better spirits than I used to be, but I’ve been blue lately, too. I just seem to know an awful lot of happy and high-spirited mothers raising small children, each of them looking forward to spending the holidays with their kids. It’s a good time for me to refocus my energy and attention away from what I don’t have to what I do have…
Thank you for this post. I started out the season full of holiday spirit, but this last week just feel bah humbug and can’t wait till it’s over
Merry Christmas, Lisa! 🙂 My own holiday has had its ups & downs, but as you said, it’s up to us to make the best of it.