editor victoria’s comment ~ i prefer to celebrate when i feeeeel aligned to do so – certainly not because of what the calendar says. this year especially not so into all of this. i know many of you (myself included) desire to have that song lyric be our holiday gift: “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”….
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- You are not too sensitive if you are easily overwhelmed by the holiday muzak, the florescent lights, the crowds, the frenetic meaningless pace, and the smell of stale popcorn at the shopping mall.
- You are not a failure as a human being if your siblings went to Stanford and are all doctors and have two and a half kids and you are still wondering what to do when you grow up because you took a detour into drug treatment and psychotherapy because your soft heart and gentle spirit needed to heal.
- You are not lacking in empathy if you are frustrated and irritated, well, okay, enraged by society’s focus on the status of having more and more stuff, the bigger the better, while others are oblivious to the impact of said stuff.
- You are not socially inept or paranoid if you have to abruptly leave a gathering of people who seem happy and charming and delightful but who make your stomach ache, because unbeknownst to your conscious mind, they are really miserable.
- You are not an arrogant know-it-all if you choose to wrap the kids’ gifts in newspaper, or if you give your precocious nieces homemade light switch plates instead of Barbie dolls, or if you choose funding a homeless family over yet another plastic giraffe for your adorable nephew.
- You are not a bad daughter/son if you have mixed feelings about attending the family event, and if you make a plan to leave early when your relatives start to berate you about your political or religious beliefs — or about why you didn’t go to Harvard when you had so much potential.
- You are not being inauthentic if you consciously avoid certain topics with family members who you know will react with anger or misunderstanding to your attempt to explain, say, your logical reasons for changing your college major for the fifth time.
- You are not too persnickety if you start your own holiday rituals and don’t allow your toddler to watch reality TV, use your iPad, or learn how to operate a cell phone.
- You are not a failure as a parent if your holiday meal is a flop, if your kids throw their biggest tantrums just when the grandparents arrive, if you still haven’t gotten your hair cut or trained your dog not to beg for food.
- You are not an oddball if you question the traditions, religion, or the obsession with television that organizes your family gatherings. Well, maybe you are an oddball in that regard, but there are times when oddballs are needed! This might be one of those times.
- You are not too dramatic if you cry when your relatives tease you, well, okay, bully you, because you are following yet another career path, you have stopped straightening your hair, and you are still single.
- You are not too intense if you can’t totally enjoy the holiday because people around the globe are suffering, the ice caps are melting, and you are distracted by your need to find and manifest your purpose on the planet.
- You are not too idealistic if you believe that it is still possible for a transformation to occur where the people of the world embrace compassion over fear.
- You are not alone if you dread the stresses of the holiday season and look forward to the end of said season. And, you are not wrong if you understand the following to be true: You are successfully sensitive, effervescently empathetic, indescribably intense, awesomely authentic, prudently persnickety, illustriously idealistic, and resplendently rainforest-minded.
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