Eat, Drink, & Make Merry!

Here we are in the holiday season again. For me, on the west coast it is sometimes hard to believe that it is the winter time. That's exactly why I like it here though. Having lived in other places around the country I really have come to appreciate the left coast much more then I ever did when I was younger.

The holidays always evoke beautiful images of family and good times with people that we've become close to. I must admit that I too have bought into this idealistic imagery and often find myself waxing nostalgic to times that my memory has clouded with happy and joyful thoughts. Its the very human way to only remember the good times through imagery but if we dig deep we will find that the feelings that we actually experienced are still there. Whatever disappointment, loneliness, or depression we were feeling around these special times survive no matter how we bury them with those foggy images of good times.

All this would be just sound like I am soar toward the holidays without a point.

"Well get to it already!"

Fine I will. All this sour sounding monologue is simply to point out that we don't have to hold on to these feelings. The repression of these feelings will forever be your undoing when it comes to times of good cheer. As it is part of our human condition to retain these hurt feelings it also builds itself into a natural (wall) defense mechanism to ward off the possibility of feeling bad again. It will hold you back from experiencing what could be the best time of your life.

"Don't let your past dictate your future!" This is something that we have been told or heard for a long time, especially if you've ever bought into a self-help tape or book. Sadly (or maybe happily) it is completely true. It is a glorious and wonderful journey that we are all on. It is full of happiness, sadness, anger, hopefulness, love, desperation, plenty and want too. But when we experience this amazing range of emotion it is one of our (or should be) goals of life to figure out and process all of them in such a way to not hinder us in the future but let them simply enrich the journey. Life is full of so much more then sadness and want but when you live in America these days (and especially in Southern California) it is sometimes impossible to keep a healthy prospective on the differences between wants, needs as well as damaging or healthy relationships.