After Thanksgiving Day

Some of us have made it through another Thanksgiving day without the people we love so dearly. There are a number of reasons why those people were not with us physically. Maybe that special relationship has ended, maybe our responsibilities have pulled us in another direction so that the separation is a temporary one and maybe those that we love have transitioned this plane and are now present with God. The reason is not important. It is the feeling that grabs on to us and doesn’t seem to let go.

The loneliness and the emptiness seem to be magnified beyond what our being can handle, but we do handle it. Some of us decide not to partake in family events because the pain is still too sharp. Some of us just wish to get through the day as quickly as possible. It’s no longer the fun and joyous time that we use to have. It’s painful and it sometimes begins a day or two before the actual holiday. It doesn’t feel like we will ever get through the fog that surrounds us.

But we do get through the fog. It just takes time. It takes time for those memories that we hold dear to act as a balm and heal us. It takes time for us to stop looking in the physical for our love ones and start feeling in the spiritual for their presence. It takes time to accept that you are stronger than you think you are. It takes time to learn how to rely on God’s love to get us through. The holidays will come and go. Some of us will only suffer for a few days or weeks or months because our separations are temporary. Others of us will suffer for years and/or decades because our loss is permanent in this physical world.

Slowly the pain will lessen. It may take months and in some cases it may take years. Just know that it does lessen. It may never go away completely because we will never forget those who we are missing. But you will learn how to make new “normals” and traditions that you will be able to enjoy around the holidays. You will never recapture the feelings of what was since the people who were the biggest part of that are no longer here physically. However, you will learn how to create new routines and experience new laughs and love and warmth.

And this is all because of the grace of God.