MaXIMIze - Celebration - Sometimes I Hate the Holidays!

I had a whole plan laid out of what topics that fit the theme of Celebration I was going to blog about this month - which got totally sidetracked for a variety of reasons!

A Facebook interaction - a reaction to responses to a post I shared on sharing favorite meals that Mom or Grandma made, which I addressed to my three blood children - has put a pall on the holidays this year.

It is a pall I can choose to wear as a mantle, or one I can cry over and let go - and I will choose the latter.

The holiday season can dredge up all sorts of memories - good and bad - and how we perceive those memories can cause us to either be filled with joy and thankfulness for what we have right here, right now, or they can push us into melancholy, depression, and crying "woe is me" to the world.

So, when I had read responses to my post before bed last night, I was happy that my children - both blood and heart - were remembering good times and good meals. I went to sleep with that positive energy flowing through me.

When I checked the responses this morning, however, I discovered that my son and a Facebook friend of mine had an argument in the thread of the responses, and my son had left Facebook (which he has done in the past). This hurt me deeply, and yes, when I got more information on his responses, I cried.

I love my son and I hurt for him. However, he has issues he needs to address and find a way to heal. Unless he truly acknowledges that fact, takes responsibility for his own life, and works to change and grow into the healthy, happy, responsible person we all know he can be, then these flare-ups are going to continue to happen, particularly during times of celebration.

And that is why I sometimes hate the holidays.

However, I can choose to wallow in the negative emotions or I can choose to let them pass through and focus on the positive instead.

I can choose to respond rather than react. I can take that breath, fill my thoughts with positivity, and move forward from there, realizing life isn't perfect, and this too shall pass.

I will focus on the happy memories of the little boy who loved popcorn toast so much that he tried to make it himself, and continue to send the man that boy grew into positive energy, and hope he finds a way to heal for himself and for his beautiful children.

Namaste!