UNITED STATES—While it is NOT officially Winter yet, that happens on December 21, it certainly feels like it. There are some parts of the country where it is REALLY cold people and there are other parts where the temperatures don’t feel like it, but the atmosphere is getting there. I love winter. I’m originally from the Midwest, where I enjoyed four seasons growing up, Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. I love the Winter it is actually my favorite time of year.
The cold doesn’t bother me. I have the notion that you can always warm up when it cold, it is much more difficult to cool down when it’s hot because then you ultimately get cold. With that said, so many people are experiencing the Winter Blues. This time of year, is NOT always as celebratory for many people. Why? There are those who are dealing with grief, the loss of parents, siblings, friends loved ones that used to be pivotal elements in their lives.
The holidays are NOT always the greatest time of year for all Americans. Some seriously struggle with loneliness, not that they don’t want to be around others, they just don’t want to have people pity them or make them feel less than because they don’t have a significant other or the family that so many others are used to being surrounded by.
We have to be willing to give people grace. If someone doesn’t want to spend time with another person’s family and friends, that is ok, but please DO NOT forget to let those people know that you are there for them if they need something. Sometimes take a moment and actually visit those people when they least expect it. It’s going to put a smile or a pep in their step that can make a ton of difference if you ask me.
We sometimes have to allow people to come to us when they’re ready, not the other way around. Grief is something that is difficult for many people to understand, if they have never encountered it. Losing a loved way, especially a parent or sibling or your best friend is not something you get over in a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade, several decades. Pain and grief come in waves, sometimes waves that you least imagine to say the least. You are fine one minute; the next minute it strikes you like a ton of bricks that you never imagined.
I know both my parents have difficult times with both of my grandparents on both sides being gone. Probably a lot more difficult for my mom because she lost both of them in her 30s. I’d like to say I remember my mother’s grandmother, but I don’t remember as much as I would like to because I was so young. I have memories, but they are fleeting.
My mother’s father died when I was a teen in high school, while my father’s parents died when I was much much older. In my 30s, but again I lost grandparents, they lost their actual parents so imagine not having grandma’s food on Thanksgiving and Christmas ever again? Not the easiest thing to do, but you will of course do your best to try to recreate those memories, but they are not the same.
This is NOT just about losing loved ones, there are those who are just lonely and we have to do more, now than ever to ensure people are not in this headspace where they think they don’t have anyone because that is not necessarily the case. Sometimes you give a push, sometimes they give a push; if you see it you just have to be willing to acknowledge it and not ignore it.
The Winter months can sometimes be the most depressing time of year for some Americans; however, we can always change that with a simple conversation. It can be a text, it can be an email, it can be a letter or wait for it: it can be a phone call. Just checking in on the people that matter in your life doesn’t cost anything, you just have to have the heart to do it.
