Take Charge of Your Attitude
This will be my fourth Holiday Season without my husband of 55 years. I could sit around and whine about that, but I choose to take another view:
This is the fourth holiday season that I will look around our cosy home and remember all the wonderful times we shared here, and be grateful there were so many of them. My family will join me at our holiday table and all will tell stories about those wonderful times we enjoyed with "Dad" and "Papa." Abe Lincoln warned that the good we do is often interred with our bones, but my sweet husband did enough obvious good to provide such stories for many years.
Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way. One of my dearest friends complained last week that the holiday season is a terrible time for her.
She has to face Thanksgiving without her husband, she said, then celebrate her birthday the next day and Christmas three weeks later without him, and THEN, she says, "...then I have to remember our wedding anniversary was on Xmas day too."
She said that after spending a beautiful Thanksgiving day at the table of thoughtful lifelong friends, with their children and grandchildren frolicking around the room. She told it to another group of friends who were sitting in a restaurant with her the next day, helping her celebrate her birthday. Then she admitted her children and their spouses will be coming from out of state to spend Christmas with her, and they'll all have dinner together and exchange gifts.
Sounds like a nice time to me, but some people choose to view their cup as half empty.
I choose to keep mine running over with joyful memories. I think we owe that to our good spouses.
This is the fourth holiday season that I will look around our cosy home and remember all the wonderful times we shared here, and be grateful there were so many of them. My family will join me at our holiday table and all will tell stories about those wonderful times we enjoyed with "Dad" and "Papa." Abe Lincoln warned that the good we do is often interred with our bones, but my sweet husband did enough obvious good to provide such stories for many years.
Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way. One of my dearest friends complained last week that the holiday season is a terrible time for her.
She has to face Thanksgiving without her husband, she said, then celebrate her birthday the next day and Christmas three weeks later without him, and THEN, she says, "...then I have to remember our wedding anniversary was on Xmas day too."
She said that after spending a beautiful Thanksgiving day at the table of thoughtful lifelong friends, with their children and grandchildren frolicking around the room. She told it to another group of friends who were sitting in a restaurant with her the next day, helping her celebrate her birthday. Then she admitted her children and their spouses will be coming from out of state to spend Christmas with her, and they'll all have dinner together and exchange gifts.
Sounds like a nice time to me, but some people choose to view their cup as half empty.
I choose to keep mine running over with joyful memories. I think we owe that to our good spouses.
Comments