By Lisa Manterfield
That’s me, learning to sail.
Every year it seems I get caught out 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.
Lisa, I so relate to your post. I unexpectedly woke with a little of the holiday blues myself this year for the same reasons. I’ll take your advice, pull out some reserve natural optimism that I’m blessed to possess and be thankful that I don’t have any more malls that I need to go to before Christmas HAPPY HOLIDAYS to everyone!!!
Yes. Yes. I know all of the feelings..”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.”
This was a beautiful post and something to keep in mind when those feelings of lack, and failure come to play.Thank You! I will try doing this today.
I just saw an interesting idea on pinterest along these same lines. You start the year off with an empty jar and every time something good happens you write it on a piece of paper and drop it in the jar, then at the end of the year you spend new years eve reading through all of your notes and recognize all the good things to be thankful from that year. I’ve had a really hard time finding many things to be thankful for this year, I know there were fun and happy things but just having trouble remembering them.We all need to remember the good because there is so much grief and sadness. So I’m committing to first go shopping for a cute jar ( shopping and creativity makes me happy) then i’m going to put it in a prominent spot in our home and keep track of the years fun, good, joy filled activities as well as the small moments or encouraging comments from people. Its hard to not dwell on the sad and hurtful things in life, i’m hoping this “new years resolution” will help me along my healing and keep me a little more focused on the good.
What a great idea!!!!!!
It’s raining here too but we really need it. The drawback though is that it slows my thoughts and that has me reflecting about all the usual what-ifs and never to be experienced alternatives.
How is it they pop up so easily and then it takes a real effort to put them back in their box? The good things in my life this year are many I’m sure, they just seem to take a bit longer to recall – maybe that’s just a sign of me aging!
If anything can lift those blues it’s got to be fruitcake!
I’m the opposite – here it is always so hot at Christmas time,and I thrive in cold,rainy weather.Maybe we should country swap for a while 😉 Getting the holiday blues is so annoying,because I not only feel down,but I constantly scold myself for feeling down.It’s quite a dumb circle.
I married late in life, so never had kids. I didn’t realize at the time, that not having children is a life sentence. This means I will never have grandchildren, either. This means that once my husband passes away, and I’m in my 80s, I may very well have no living relatives left. I try to make the best of my life but I will never know the joy of holding a newborn baby in my arms. I will never take pictures of “first day at school”, throw a child’s birthday party, or be mother of the bride (or groom) at a wedding. I guess its too late for me.