You, your mental health and others’, this Christmas

It’s been a rough year.  Remember when we naively hoped that 2021 would usher in relief as we sought to ditch last year with true ‘2020’ hindsight?  2021 has been a doozie in many ways.

We did our annual drive around to see the Christmas lights last night (Christmas Eve – yes, it’s very early Christmas morning here).  As I turned one corner, I did what all of us drivers do, and I turned a corner and had headlights bearing down on me.  The driver sped up, put their high-beam lights on, and because they were driving aggressively, I sought to turn left at the next convenient corner, so then I got a blast from their horn.

I understand the anger.  And I understand the frustration of someone ahead of you not going fast enough – we just wanted to look at lights when on suburban streets.  Anyway, that said, we meandered home.

There’s a lot going on these days in people’s emotional worlds.

There’s a lot of fear and there’s also a lot of scepticism and cynicism, together with frustration, loneliness, and just plain tiredness and exhaustion.  Many, many manifestations of garden variety anxiety that pounces and pushes hope to despair.

The only thing that can help in all these situations is a little kindness.  Just a little bit is all it takes to execute grace, to forgive the mistaken instant, to issue a smile instead of a frown.  But we must make that agreement first; it needs to be arranged as an intention.

Your mental health and mine is tenuous at present.  We’ve all been pushed that little bit harder this year. We’re all just a little more fragile.  And this is not to mention the losses going on in so many lives that I’m aware of right now.

We need to go gently with ourselves and with others.  When we’re gentle with ourselves it tends to work out that we’re gentle with others, so let that be our bearing.  “I’m not being kind to people at present, so does that mean I’m not being kind enough to myself?”

Worth pondering.

Christmas is symbolic as a time of peace and goodwill to all humanity.  But it’s also a real pressure point for just about everyone.  Most people either have too much busyness going on or the opposite reality bears down – forlorn loneliness.  Lonely Christmases are the pits, so if that’s you, receive a portion of my empathy, please!

Let’s take care of you and me this Christmas, hey?