This Little Golden Book was one of my absolute favorites as a kid. I loved looking in the store window at those beautiful cakes and pastries. I loved imagining I was the girl skating around the ice on one foot, with my other leg stretched high.
But I don't think I ever heard or read the story one time, where my eyes didn't fill with tears when Frosty begins to melt away. That moment seemed to encompass all the loss and sadness my heart had ever known.
The holiday season is celebrated as the time when family and friends gather and everything is warm, joyful and filled with love.
And yet we know it's also a time that evokes sadness for many
people. It's lonely for those who are away from home. It's painful when it make it all to plain the losses we've suffered, or the relationships that are not all we wish they were.
From the time we are small children, Christmas, in particular, is a time for wishing, and as adults me may get caught up in feeling it is our job to make everyone's wishes come true. Most of all our own. This next week, my goal is not to have expectations, not to be filled
with wishing. I want to be open and present to what is true here and now. There'll be much joy as all my chicks come home to the nest, and no doubt, there'll be sadness, too. Whatever the holiday brings, I want my feelings to be as fresh and real as they were when I spent an imaginary day so long ago with Frosty the Snowman.
What about you? I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you handle the emotional ups and downs of the holidays.
