This is not an article. Rather, this is a list of reminders for the holiday season. These may apply to your college student, your child, your best friend, or your neighbor.
The months ahead will be filled with twinkling lights, eggnog-scented candles, and Christmas music. (If you live in the same area I do, the months before have been filled with Christmas music as well since before Thanksgiving was even a concept for 2016.) They will be filled with celebrations of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year's, the Immaculate Conception, and more. For many, they will involve changing of the seasons and a encroaching feeling of loneliness and inability to hold up as the rest of the world seems happy, shrouded in gifts, food and family.
The holidays may be a time that energizes you, dear reader. You might look forward to them because you get a burst of energy from the idea of seeing your family again, of picking out the perfect present for that certain someone, of spending the day in the kitchen doting over recipes cooked with love. You may not be able to fathom why anyone would feel lethargic or alone during such a Wonderful Time of the Year, and that is fine. Many people, myself included, envy you for that.
But I ask you to be aware regardless. Holidays are a time in which people's insecurities make themselves known, because everyone else seems to be having an incredible time. Whether it's true or not, the version of the holidays that we choose to surround ourselves with is one that advertises how happy and well-adjusted we are, ready to greet the rest of the year and the year ahead with energy and enthusiasm. It's exhausting to keep up, unless one happens to be superhuman.
There are many reasons one might not be up to par with your own energy as the year dwindles to a close. They may have seasonal or chronic depression that intensifies around this time. Family members may have died around this segment of the year, which can have an immense impact on how one perceives a traditionally happy time. They may be going through financial troubles. They may have a situation that you know nothing about, and they are not obligated to share that with you.
So I ask you, as a personal favor and my own gift this holiday season, to be mindful. If someone around you, related to you, or working for you seems a little down, don't apply your own standards of how they 'should' be acting in an attempt to cheer them up. Shoot them a smile, a 'Happy Holidays'- this isn't a war on Christmas, as many might think, it's simply acknowledging that there are quite a lot of holidays between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and not everyone celebrates the same ones- and maybe make them some of your preferred holiday brew. I like Swiss Miss, myself, with my own marshmallows. (The mini ones dissolve too quickly.)
It can't hurt to spend your own energy making someone else's time a little brighter.
