are you really “surviving” the holidays…

.

.

Around this time of year, there is alot of advice, stories, commercials, internet writings, etc about “surviving the holidays” and they always show a FAMILY.  Sometimes the family is sitting around a table eating a beautiful holiday dinner, sometimes the family is sitting around the christmas tree, sometimes the family is at a party with friends, sometimes the family is going to church, sometimes the FAMILY is…  you get it.

i always find it funny and sad that people refer to this time of year as “surviving the holidays”…with their FAMILY.  My god, like having dinner with people that care about you is surviving?  Like opening presents with people that care about you is surviving? Like going to parties and church and whatever with people that care about you is surviving?

Don’t you see…you have people that care about you.

So what if your sister is weird and talks about birds all day?  So what if your mother has OCD and freaks out because the turkey is late to the table?  So what if Aunt Sally got you a hot pink scarf…again?   You have family and people that care about you and want you to be there during the holidays.  They want you to be with them…

Survival is the struggle to remain alive and living. Is being with your family and people that care about you a struggle to stay alive?  Is that really what you think?  i guess if your family are abusive and hateful, then yes, it could be a struggle to survive and in that case, being alone is better than being with those that are hurtful.

… But for most, when they complain about the “holidays with their family”  they are complaining about small things.

.

If tomorrow your family or loved ones disappeared

and you had no where to go,

no dinner to attend,

no opening presents, etc..

…would you take back all the complaining?

.

This part of the year is always so hard for me.  i would give anything to have a FAMILY; anything to have a crazy sister, a loud-mouth aunt, a snotty-nose niece, and an OCD mom.   i would give anything to get a crappy present, to have a burnt ham, or to have cranberries spilled on me.  i would give anything for a place to go that is filled with FAMILY.

i would not look at being with them as “survival”…

…but as a special gift that so many people don’t have.

This season, i challenge people who feel they are “surviving the holidays” with their family to walk down a city street and look at the homeless kids, many who are aged-out foster kids…

What are they doing?

… they are trying to SURVIVE