Comments on: The Grinch’s notebook

By: Cindy H

Cindy H — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:30:43 +0000

Cindy, I’m reading your post on Christmas Eve…a little later than most. Thank you for sharing your heartfelt thoughts about this season. I think it’s important to have reasonable expectations for the holidays. I love your description of the open house at your grandparents’ home. I felt as if I were a part of that myself!

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:43:49 +0000

Cindy,
I appreciate your heartfelt thoughts here and the transparency with which you shared them. My heart is deeply touched. What struck me the most was the phrase you used about finding a “quiet harbor of acceptance.”

Those words to me feel like a gift and I am going to write them down in my journal. I want to read them again and again, for it strikes me that this is what I need so often in my life. Yes, despite appearances, I am someone who often resists, especially feeling a bit gnarly about certain people’s choices (family members, of course). I will go to these words like a drink of water when I need them. Thank you for these pearls.

I hold you in heart, thought and prayer that you will find simple pleasures in your holidays as they unfold. xo

By: cindy

cindy — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:48:32 +0000

This is your front page essay on Christmas, Cindy. Thank you!

By: Jennifer Margulis

Jennifer Margulis — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:17:56 +0000

Oh Cindy, so much of what you wrote here really resonates with me. I know what you mean about it being a hard and difficult season. I think you’ve expressed here what so many of us feel.

By: Debra Darvick

Debra Darvick — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:46:43 +0000

Cindy, what a beautiful and poignant essay. I cannot imagine the bittersweet of this Christmas for you and your mom. You are valiant, courageous, loving and thoughtful every day of the year. What better way to celebrate Jesus’ birth?

By: Joanna Jenkins

Joanna Jenkins — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:23:53 +0000

Wow Cindy, just wow. This is an exquisite post that spoke volumes to me. We share a lot of the same feelings about the holidays, including a sense of loss for family and loved ones and a sense of not “belonging” when sharing other family traditions. But your last paragraph summed it up….. Enjoy that “deep breath”.
Happy holidays,
xo

By: Jannie Funster

Jannie Funster — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:25:35 +0000

Whoops, I posted the above with my website link incomplete.

More blessings!!

By: Jannie Funster

Jannie Funster — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:22:59 +0000

So many touching moments in this, Cindy.

And humor. With our extended family having loosed the grips of The Christmas Machine many many years ago I do kind of miss all that free underwear — those days of the week pastel set, I could use a batch of those.

What a beautiful place to arrive at — knowing all is just where it should be, I too have landed fair and square there ab
nd it’s the best gift of all.

Blessings!

By: Pam

Pam — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:12:17 +0000

Cindy,
I’ve been wrestling with similar issues, and you speak to it so clearly. Thanks for your honesty. I think your words will help so many find comfort in a hopeful, but complicated season.

By: Kitty

Kitty — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:19:12 +0000

When I was a kid, I held on to the family Christmas “traditions” for dear life. But after I became an adult, Christmas has been different for me every year — each celebrated with different people, different places and events. Sometimes the hoilday season was very active, sometimes very quiet. So, as much as I’d want it to be the contrary, I haven’t been able to settle into a groove and get attached to it being a certain way.

For several years in a row early on, I threw a Christmas tree-trimming party at my house. Then I got my cats, and discovered that cats and Christmas trees don’t mix too well.

Reading this has inspired me to do a little Christmas retrospective, thinking about Christmases past, warm and fun memories about places and people from my life. Thanks.