On your LJ or blog, list your favorite:
1 — Holiday Movie: The Ref–both because it’s funny and because of the circumstances under which I first saw it.
2 — Holiday Story: Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory”
3 — Holiday Song: “Oh Holy Night”
4 — Holiday TV Special: “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
5 — Holiday Sweet Treat: I ONLY eat these at Christmas and because it’s a tradition for my mother to give each of her children a box–chocolate covered cherries.
6 — Holiday Gift You Ever Received: The year I got fired from a law firm–that was the first present. The second was how losing that job freed me to spend Christmas with my entire family. We had no idea it would be the last Christmas that my father was healthy. There was a moment when I looked around and noted, “Hey. It’s just the five of us!” (Rare not to have grandkids and in-laws around.) We were all laughing and reminiscing and we took photos. The memory of that Christmas has sustained me through some hard times and is the reason why in subsequent years when something bad has happened, I realized it might end in blessings I could never have anticipated.
you know, my nanny has always given us all a box of chocolate covered cherries too…i don’t think anyone likes them tho. HA
I like the chocolate covered cherries okay, but why the hell does fruitcake continue to exist?
haha
i guess only to give as a gag gift?
My aunt, now passed on, gave us chocolate covered cherries. I loved them then. I still enjoy the good ones. I rarely get them now though, when I do, I think of my Aunt Dot.
The memory of that Christmas has sustained me through some hard times and is the reason why in subsequent years when something bad has happened, I realized it might end in blessings I could never have anticipated.
Oh my … oddly enough, from my long years of frantic research looking for scraps of truth in piles of junk, that is the essence of what Catholic theologians might call “the yielded spirit.” Although I am horribly uncomfortable with my Catholic heritage (for good reason because they have rather defined the term “Royal Fuck Up”) … it means you learn how to trust that your soul’s guardians will work things out in the most spiritually beneficial way, even when it feels like hell going through it. Trust under fire is the hardest skill to embrace. It doesn’t mean suffering without question … no, it means coming to the other side of the rage and seeking a deeper understanding instead. This usually takes a long time.
I apologize if this comment is too black for the season of lights, but in typical fashion my personal patterns will not follow those of the general population … and Christmas is the darkest time of the year for me. On the other hand, the lights only have obvious meaning when they are contrasted to the darkness.
Don’t apologize, please. This season is a hard time of year for so many people. And I really appreciate your comment, because “yielded spirit” is a term with which I wasn’t familiar.
Indeed, as you say, it took me years to learn to automatically shift my perception from “life is shit and all goes wrong” to “life is a constant surprise that will somehow turn out okay.” Of course, I still struggle with that, particularly when I’m in the middle of frustration, pain, or “misfortune,” but the one thing that I believe age can teach us, if we let it, is the wisdom that “this, too, shall pass.”
Shit never stops, but I think/hope our ability to know that we will survive or transcend it makes the shit a little less devastating.
I can’t believe I forgot The Ref. I own it; I love it!
Hey, I like fruitcake. But, alas it doesn’t like me so much. God help the person stuck in the same room with me after eating a few slices. lol.
I love THE REF. Who hasn’t dreamed of telling their mother in law from hell to shut up? and then binding them all together. lol. Great movie.
Since I’ve never seen it, I guess I’m going to have to rent THE REF. . Also I’ve never read A CHRISTMAS MEMORY, but I have seen the TV adaptation several times, does that count?
And would you believe there once was a time when I stool in the front of a darkened church in a red cassock and starched white surplice and sang O HOLY NIGHT in the light of a single candle.
And I not only enjoy cherry cordials, but fruit cake, too!
Thanks for taking part in the survey.
…end in blessings I could never have anticipated……that is a wonderful idea. I think I am going to bring it up in my next therapy session. I can see it helping me so much.