“It is a time of hope and good cheer, to last throughout the year”. Or so it seems as the Christmas tunes on constant replay meld themselves together in my head.
But what if you are feeling anything but cheery? What if this year has been pure hard slog from day one and it never let up? What if you have forgotten how to hope?
What if the end of this year actually brings more pain, heaped on an already very tough year?
Did you know that it is okay to grieve at Christmas? Did you know it’s okay to sit at the foot of your Christmas tree and cry? Did you know that hope is not always found in the tinsel but rather in the letting go?
Did you know it’s okay to stop and acknowledge your pain, your hurt and your sorrow? That it is okay to slow down enough to feel.
Yes, it may be a little less joyful than you had planned, but it will be true, it will be you.
Take the time you need to mourn the loss of relationship, to grieve the changing of a season, to feel the hurt inflicted.
Christmas can take it.
Stop.
Feel.
Let go.
And in that letting go, hope sneaks in.
As I have been writing this post, I listened to the song below over and over again. May it breathe hope into you this Christmas.
Jodie