WHAT WILL WE DO THIS HOLIDAY SEASON??
Like many people these days, I bet you’re not sure how or where your family will be spending the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day holidays this year.
In the context of all the suffering, hardship, and pain created by this virus, uncertainty can feel like a small matter. But even though you may recognize that, never lose sight of it.
In most years, you can predict exactly what you and your family will be doing: spending Thanksgiving with the in-laws, then over to your own parents or friends’ homes. Maybe traveling for Christmas to visit your sister or extended family…and the New Year with just you and your partner or pets.
But this year it will all be different…Or will it? Maybe it's still too soon to tell exactly what the future will hold—for visits, for traveling, for school, for work, for plans.
To help you cope with this unusual level of uncertainty, here are a few reminders to consider:
Try not to exhaust yourself making plans or coming up with options if you really don't have the necessary information yet. For instance… for the Christmas break. It seems far away at this point to make plans and there are too many unknown factors.
Find reasons to be grateful. As you think about the possibilities, you can find ways to be grateful that we have our health, don't have to travel, or that we do get to travel, don't have to host, or we do get to host, and so on. I want to find the good in whatever happens.
Be flexible. Keep reminding yourself to keep an open and creative mind about how your family might celebrate differently, so that we honor the spirit of the season in a new way – maybe new traditions!
Keep perspective. There is a larger view of today's circumstances, to keep those anxieties in proper perspective, this affects every person.
The things that go wrong often make the best memories.
Because this holiday season will be so exceptional, it will be memorable. It's very likely that we'll remember the holidays of 2020 better than a lot of the holidays that went "right." Remember THOSE holidays?
Moral of this story… Be thankful, grateful because you are here and it might sound funny, but we have the best year of technology to stay in touch and to reach out. Can you help a friend or family member who feels isolated? YES YOU CAN!!
Most people are prisoners, thinking only about the future or living in the past. They are not in the present, and the present is where everything begins." [Carlos Santana]
