"we are all home for the holidays"

[orleans]

this is a nice piece written about absent friends & family:

"When you think about those who are missing, those who are missing make their ways back into the home. A cliché, we know. But true. That’s one of the beauties of our circle of life. We never lose anyone. Never.

"We are all home for the holidays."

http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2013/12/holiday-absence-loved-ones

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That is a great article, my dear orleans...

Nostalgia. I had not thought of that word's origins before, but that makes sense, and it helps.

Thank you!

[orleans]

2. you're welcome.

how are you doing?
i'm still hanging in there, but not very well.
(but what can i do, right?)

hope you're okay.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. I am doing OK, thanks.

I tend to be hard-headed about what's happened, esp. when there's nothing I can do about it.

I still have moments of extreme sorrow, tears, the whole nine yards. But they happen less often than before. Sometimes I don't even know what the trigger was...
Sometimes I still feel very close to him, as though he were here. Then I feel so happy...So, I'm up and down, just at longer intervals than before.

I'm sorry that you're having that much distress...It makes me wish I had a magic wand.

[orleans]

5. god, i wish i had one of those wands. n/t

[Paper Roses]

4. Thank you. For all of us who have lost someone, your posts are always welcome.

Best to you and yours this holiday season.

I'll be glad when it is over. My memories are great but reliving them makes me sad. I thing I don't cope as well as some people.

[orleans]

6. i don't think i cope as well as some people either.

a friend of mine has a completely different take than i do when it comes to memories of our mothers--
when he thinks of her he feels positive, uplifted, glad for all the wonderful times they had
and while i am glad for all the wonderful times i had with my mother, i am heartbroken from missing her and knowing there are no more wonderful moments with her in this lifetime.

so i get it when you say the memories are great but reliving them makes you sad. because that's what i do. i yearn, so deeply, for what once was and all i had.

my daughter and her betrothed and their furkid will be joining me and my furkid on thanksgiving. and, as always, i will have an fourth chair at the table, with an added place set.

i hope you have family or friends you will be with, and find some happiness in the day--and some peace and comfort.

it's pretty amazing how much love we are capable of feeling, isn't it?

[murielm99]

7. I am not ready for this Christmas with my daughter.

She will be here. It is her first Christmas without her husband.

I love Christmas. This is going to be tough.

[orleans]

8. yes, but i imagine

you'll be helping her through it--you're there for her and that is SO important