The Holiday Blues

Do the holidays bring you to tears? Missing loved ones and can't wait until they are over? What if you could find a way to honor your loved ones memory and enjoy the company of your family and friends during the holiday season?

Sometimes, we just need to take a deep breath and remember good times. Recall a special memory that brought happy tears or laughter. Reach down deep if you have to and pull up a childhood memory of receiving a special gift or pet, something that made you feel special. Now, bask in those memories for a while. Take in the sights, and scents of the holiday seasons past that brought you joy and comfort.

Christmas shopping used to be such fun, running from store to store trying to find that one elusive toy for one of the kids that was on their Christmas list. Life was so much simpler then. Life was chaotic and crazy, and we were stressed out with work and money problems, if you want the truth and yet I'd trade my life today to go back. Would you?

I don't know if I mean that or not. I have come a long way over the years and learned a great deal about my kids, my grand kids and most of all, about myself. I have learned how to cope with life's greatest tragedy, burying a child.

It will be 9 years in February that my daughter was laid to rest. The holidays are a particularly difficult time of year. She was 34 years young, and left three beautiful children behind. The lump in my throat and the ache in my heart becomes almost unbearable this time of year. I try so hard to hold back tears and put on a happy face for my family. Inside I am crumbling and catching my breath moment by moment as the holidays pass. I have come a long way from the first few years though. I don't stand in the middle of a store and have a meltdown anymore. I don't run out of a room when you mention her name. Now, I can recall good memories and smile at the thought of her and some of her silliness. She could always make me laugh!

It takes time to heal enough to be able to move forward. Everyone's journey is different. There is no right or wrong way to grieve and there is no magic process to find your way. You have to allow yourself the opportunity to feel all the feelings, the sad, the bad and also, the good. You have to get past the guilt of smiling at a memory and laughing out loud. That all happens in your own time.

The holidays are just part of the year. No different than any other, really. The pain is just a little sharper because we are so focused on family. Just breathe and pray, always pray. Even, a simple I need You, Lord, will reach the Heavens. And He will be there to hold you up.

So, if the holiday blues are getting you down, look up...He is waiting and will hear the simplest prayer for help through the most beautiful season of the year.

Blessings and Merry Christmas!