The holidays are often wrapped in images of joy, togetherness, and celebration-but for many of us , they can quietly stir sadness.
Maybe you’ve experienced a loss this year, and the empty spaces feel louder during what is supposed to be a joyful season. Maybe you long for the days when your children were little-when the holidays were filled with wonder, magic, and wide-eyed delight. Or maybe, after all the cooking, baking, wrapping, hosting, and yes…spending, the season leaves you feeling depleted and low once it’s over.
These feelings don’t mean you’re ungrateful. They mean you’re human.
The truth is, life changes-and the holidays change with it. What once was may not return in the same form, and that can ache deeply. But perhaps there is solace to be found in accepting our new normal, rather than resisting it.
Acceptance doesn’t mean forgetting what was or dismissing our grief. It means allowing ourselves to acknowledge where we are now-with honestly and tenderness. When we speak to ourselves with kindness and compassion, we soften the edges of change. We give ourselves permission to feel without judgment.
In embracing ourselves as we are, and the circumstances as they are, we make room for a quieter kind of peace. One that doesn’t erase sadness, but holds it gentlyAnd in that space, we may discover that even amid change, we are still whole-and still worthy of care, love and grace.