I want to preface this with saying that this post, like any other on here, isn't a ploy for sympathy or anything like that; it's just what I'm feeling right now as I sit down to write. I can be more candid here than in person because I can't see your face or hear your reaction. I try to be real here, because the impersonality of this blog is cathartic. So. Onward.Christmas for the Hoosband is exciting, and it's the same with Birdy. They are both so excited to get the tree up and listen to music and read Christmas-y stories. Hoosband gets such a feeling of satisfaction choosing the perfect gift for each person. Birdy yells "Santa! SANTA!" when she sees anything in red and white that may or may not have a beard.
I am not that excited.
Christmas makes me sad. It has for a while.
I don't know why.
If I think about the Christmas story, it makes me heartsick. Joseph, taking Mary on a journey so late in her pregnancy. Mary, scared that the baby will come too soon or too far away from a safe resting place. The sorrow and dismay they must have felt when there was no room for them anywhere but for a small cave that housed animals. Joseph, who must have been terrified (even if he had to marry the girl he was betrothed to when it was found out she was in the family way from God himself--and who wouldn't believe THAT story?) when Mary started to go into labor in earnest next to a bored looking goat. Or Mary, who was 14 or so and was having her first baby away from everything familiar except for her new husband (and that donkey they borrowed to go to Bethlehem in the first place, but who can count a donkey as a sincere friend?).
It's just sad.
When I think of Christmas, I have a feeling of longing so acute it brings tears to my eyes many times, yet I can't tell you what I'm longing for. Family? Maybe, but I feel it even when we are spending Christmas with our parents in Washington. I just know it makes my throat ache and my eyes water. I'm a grinch sometimes because I have to be--I don't want to feel like this all the time--not because I want to dampen the spirits of others. I look forward to the time after the gifts, when we're spending time together Birdy is in her cute dress.
I just don't know what I'm sad about. I don't know why I don't get excited for Christmas morning, or giving people gifts, or singing songs. I just wish it was over.
Which is also sad.
2 comments:
Hi friend,
This is sad. What "we've" done with Christ's birth is sad. So perhaps, you are the one feeling the "right" feelings? We should all be joyful that our Savior was born at all, yet still sad about His destiny and the need for it in the first place.
So glad you are posting and being real. I missed you here and I miss you "there".
Possibly you are sad because you understand the true meaning of "Christ"mas and we've (our society) has turned it into the rush, the hustle and bustle, the "I've just got to have it" season and many no longer even pause long enough to read the Christmas story to their children. It is sad what Christmas has become. I too long for it to be over. Oh yes I enjoy watching the joy on the faces of the gift receivers but wonder if they have received the true gift of Christmas -- Christ's Love.
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