Monday, December 14, 2015

Heal this place inside my heart

Yesterday was Gaudete Sunday, so let’s talk a little about holiday joy.

There’s such pressure for us to be joyful during this time. Savior born! Family togetherness! Bright colors, yule log, bubbles in the wine, miracles, feasting and kids on Santa’s lap. Everything meant to be perfect, sparkling, cinnamon and nutmeg, happy.

Jesus wept—it it’s enough to make you open a vein when your heart feels as hollow as a dried gourd because of grief or loss that you’ve suffered in recent times. There is nothing like mandatory merrymaking to lay a pall of darkness on your soul. We are engulfed in a relentless Christmas machine that can be more destructive than the 82nd Airborne, and it overwhelms our lives, even when we have all the "proper" pieces in place.

My Christmas song today, from the Indigo Girls, speaks to this. I sent it to my BFF last September, because I feared (rightly) that if I waited until Christmas she wouldn’t hear it, and I wanted her to.

Listen to “There’s Still My Joy”, and if you’re in that awful place of pain, try metaphorically laying bread on the branches of whatever tree you prefer. Let the birds sing to you, and think about past joys that can return—if not this year, then in future ones.





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