How many of us have learned to look inwardly with courage? I have recently been challenged to do just that, not in a didactic confrontational way, but within a the confines of a painful conversation.Painful conversations are inevitable with people about whom we care the most. If we didn’t care so much, we wouldn’t bother to ache!
Similar to the way people become addicted to alcohol, drugs, or gambling, they may also become addicted to seeking retribution against their perceived enemies. It’s called “revenge addiction.”
Did you have an off-kilter Christmas too?
What a weird season this has been. No grandchildren clamoring through, no visitors dropping by, no glorious baking sprees, no in-person church Christmas celebrations. Yet, I still put up a few nativity scenes, the tree, and definitely the kids’ stockings. Everyone virtually greets us with a ‘stay safe” and “stay at home!”
The new year is a time to look back and sift through what we want to keep and what we wish we could discard. One way in which I cope with throwing away the detritus of life is by highlighting the stories of hope.
I was reading an article in the Washington Post that compiled nurse interviews from ICU and ER units in hospitals across the country. The quote that jumped out at me was “there is no room left, essentially, and I think that’s really what people don’t understand.”
The news is daily warning us of the impending spike in COVID cases. We have COVID positive family members, so we did not gather at my sister’s as is the norm for Thanksgiving. The after Thanksgiving spike forebodings sent me barreling back to old, old memories of my first Thanksgiving after divorce twenty plus years ago.