Then Comes a Holiday

Life must go on
And the dead be forgotten;
Life must go on,
Though good men die;
Anne eat your breakfast;
Dan take your medicine;
Life must go on;
I just forget why.
                    - Edna St. Vincent Millay

Then comes a holiday and the whole world wants to lay aside all else and have joy and celebrations and gifts and lights and you want to scream, "Not Yet! Are you forgetting the loss of my lifetime? How can I be happy and celebrate, this is still too new!"

In the words of Doug Manning: It is all right not to enjoy Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or Hanukkah this year. There will be other years. The world will still stand if one season of holidays is missed. It's all right to be the Grinch that stole the holiday this year.

What about the children? There are always friends who want to help. Let them do the shopping. Next year you can make it up to the children, they will survive. Next year you can begin to understand the holidays from your new view point.

For more thoughts on Holiday survival see Thoughts for the Holidays: Finding Permission to Grieve by Doug Manning. In-Sight Books, 2001 http://www.insightbooks.com/

Family Memorial Mortuary - The only way to take grief out of death is to take love out of life.