Thank you so much, Christine! I'm glad to be in the company of you and other "spiritual misfits". My marriage to a paramedic who often had to work on Christmas, freed me from rigid adherence to holidays on a calendar (although it was cool that he did his first baby delivery on Christmas). However, I've alwasy been a spiritual misfit, but kept trying to force myself into the constraints of the faith I grew up in until... Everything changed when my husband died 29 years ago, right before Christmas, when his life was too painful to continue. My whole view of life and death changed, as the veil between this world and the next was so amazingly thin and I experienced somewhat frequent contacts from my late husband for several years. Christmas and other holidays were excruciatingly painful for a number of years after my husband's passing. Since then, I've come to cherish the love in my life in new ways and to appreciate Christmas and other holy days for the love embodied in them, whether it's a "holiday" or a holy day sitting with my Dad when in a hospital, or playing cards with my grandkids, or laughing at my boyfriend's ridiculous jokes, or being alone during which I often experience the love of God and a cloud of witnesses. May all who read this find blessings in this season and in 2023.
Thank you for sharing all that! Those years / Christmases right after your husband died sound incredibly hard. Now you've made me quite curious about the veil between this life and the next, and those contacts from your husband. Very transformative both personally (all the grief, all the learning to cope with life as it is) and spiritually. I love hearing the stories of what breaks people out of the "supposed to's" and the constraints of faith of origin and its associated rituals, and into something new.
Amazing reflection, Christine. Thank you for this gift from your deepest self on Christmas (and as an aside—you gave us a vicarious retreat at Merton’s home—fantastic!). I noted your tagline, “Calling all spiritual misfits” as well as your struggles and thought, “Yep, that’s me too;” that’s probably all of us who are your readers. I hope you take comfort in knowing you are not alone as a misfit; we are right here with you; a community of misfits, who are nevertheless finding our way, living our best life, despite and maybe because it is different and unique to us. We are not the ones who follow the well-travelled paths. We make our own path and ultimately are more deeply fulfilled because of it. Here’s to you and discovering your best life! Thanks for inspiring us as you find your way!
Thank you, Chuck! The internet has been a pretty amazing way to try and find other misfits :) Don't really have any desire to be "typical," whatever that is, but it sure feels better to find the other misfits along the journey! So glad to be co-journeying across the internet on these paths with you!
You sure hit that one on the head! I hate Christmas! So much tension, guilt, "shoulds". One Xmas i blew up at everyone and said, "This is the LAST Christmas I am hosting!" The next year Don and I took kids, grandkids on a cruise to Mexico.
I love that!!! Honestly, it makes no sense to me (like I just don’t understand) why people are so insistent on sticking to certain traditions, even when they’re clearly not working for them! Good for you guys.
Thank you so much, Christine! I'm glad to be in the company of you and other "spiritual misfits". My marriage to a paramedic who often had to work on Christmas, freed me from rigid adherence to holidays on a calendar (although it was cool that he did his first baby delivery on Christmas). However, I've alwasy been a spiritual misfit, but kept trying to force myself into the constraints of the faith I grew up in until... Everything changed when my husband died 29 years ago, right before Christmas, when his life was too painful to continue. My whole view of life and death changed, as the veil between this world and the next was so amazingly thin and I experienced somewhat frequent contacts from my late husband for several years. Christmas and other holidays were excruciatingly painful for a number of years after my husband's passing. Since then, I've come to cherish the love in my life in new ways and to appreciate Christmas and other holy days for the love embodied in them, whether it's a "holiday" or a holy day sitting with my Dad when in a hospital, or playing cards with my grandkids, or laughing at my boyfriend's ridiculous jokes, or being alone during which I often experience the love of God and a cloud of witnesses. May all who read this find blessings in this season and in 2023.
Thank you for sharing all that! Those years / Christmases right after your husband died sound incredibly hard. Now you've made me quite curious about the veil between this life and the next, and those contacts from your husband. Very transformative both personally (all the grief, all the learning to cope with life as it is) and spiritually. I love hearing the stories of what breaks people out of the "supposed to's" and the constraints of faith of origin and its associated rituals, and into something new.
I’ll be glad to share with you more about my grief journey sometime... the strangest journey I’ve ever taken.
So nice to journey with you too, Christine, and to enjoy your writing with which I resonate so completely.
Amazing reflection, Christine. Thank you for this gift from your deepest self on Christmas (and as an aside—you gave us a vicarious retreat at Merton’s home—fantastic!). I noted your tagline, “Calling all spiritual misfits” as well as your struggles and thought, “Yep, that’s me too;” that’s probably all of us who are your readers. I hope you take comfort in knowing you are not alone as a misfit; we are right here with you; a community of misfits, who are nevertheless finding our way, living our best life, despite and maybe because it is different and unique to us. We are not the ones who follow the well-travelled paths. We make our own path and ultimately are more deeply fulfilled because of it. Here’s to you and discovering your best life! Thanks for inspiring us as you find your way!
Thank you, Chuck! The internet has been a pretty amazing way to try and find other misfits :) Don't really have any desire to be "typical," whatever that is, but it sure feels better to find the other misfits along the journey! So glad to be co-journeying across the internet on these paths with you!
You sure hit that one on the head! I hate Christmas! So much tension, guilt, "shoulds". One Xmas i blew up at everyone and said, "This is the LAST Christmas I am hosting!" The next year Don and I took kids, grandkids on a cruise to Mexico.
I love that!!! Honestly, it makes no sense to me (like I just don’t understand) why people are so insistent on sticking to certain traditions, even when they’re clearly not working for them! Good for you guys.