12/24/2024
Holiday & Solstice Greetings to YOU!
During this holiday time, I’ve been thinking about how - when we have the gift of living through more years and decades - it also involves more loss, and for some, the holidays are a reminder of those losses or even for things they’ve never had. So, if you are one for whom grief is interwoven with joy, excitement, and wonder for the holidays, please know you are not alone. I see you and feel for you. The holidays are as complex as the human experience, and it isn’t always all just lights and joy and the perfect family picture. Whatever your experience, I hope you can make room for it all. If it’s perfect (whatever that means), enjoy the perfection! If it isn’t, I hope you give yourself space to enjoy what you have and grieve what you miss and celebrate the possibilities that are always present.
Grief can be a wily creature lurking in the shadows waiting to pounce on your heart at the most unexpected moments. But in those moments we remember someone we love, someone who is no longer here in physical form, someone whose spirit perhaps formed us and lives on in our bones, someone who bursts through the cracks of our broken hearts through a memory, a song, a smile, a familiar saying, a holiday dish, or an ornament you’ve put on your tree since you were a kid. Or maybe the grief is a longing for what we never had as a kid. This life is such a wild ride, and the holidays can be like the biggest roller coasters at the park, but there is still always so much beauty...in the laughter, and the tears, in the anticipation, and perhaps also the dread.
But the spirit of the season is remembering that underneath all that changes, is an unchanging Light, a stillness, a Peace, a Love, that is even more REAL and powerful than all that ends and begins and ends again. Call it God, call it the Great Mystery, call it the Holy Spirit, call it what you will. I don’t believe any religion owns it. But I do believe Jesus was an incarnation of that truth, reality, and knowing. The heart and vibration of unconditional love, compassion, and acceptance that He brought to this planet is so important to remember and do our best to embody, as much as we can, and especially when so many are hurting in the world. A simple smile, a kindness, more patience, more compassion, doing what we can to help, seeing the heart that is both joyful and broken.
The moments grief appears just show us the great capacity of love these hearts of ours can hold and how much we can share that to soothe others. So, whatever your experience of the holidays, I am sending so much love and virtual hugs. I’m so grateful for it all. May you know the Light that is unchanging, no matter how many changes life brings. Wishing you a Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoy the full spectrum of whatever you celebrate and am sending so much Love to you. ~ sally clinton
