8 Helpful Ways for Coping with Loss during the Holidays
Inside: If this is the first year coping with loss during the Holidays, extend yourself grace. This new change is hard, and you have every right to grieve and be sad.
Today I’m sharing at a new friend’s website: To Unearth. The focus of this website is to find God in the ordinary in life, not the extraordinary. I hope you will check out this website!
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I dislike change. There, I said it; I’m a creature of habit. Any kind of loss means I will need to rearrange and start a new habit.
I know change can be good, but I want to be pain and frustration-free. I’ll take easy and beneficial change, but I’ll leave anything that’s hard behind.
The season of Fall is one of my most disliked seasons. I don’t like the warmer weather turning colder, the kids being back in school and the sun setting earlier every day.
It’s a period of so much loss and finding a new normal.
Coping with Someone Absent this Holiday
Within this season we have two major Holidays: Thanksgiving and Christmas. The last few years, these days have signified a change in our family. The death of a few key family members has changed the dynamics of these times.
What used to be joyous times, now has a hint of sadness.
Our expectations are turned upside down, and now we need to adapt. Routines and rituals are different, and the atmosphere of the family has changed.
Thanksgiving and Christmas will never be the same again.
Seeing the kids open gifts from their grandma, my grandma’s homemade rolls, and Tom’s sarcastic humor are all memories that will linger in our minds, but we will miss their physical presence.
It feels like the glue that held the family together is now rubbed off. I’m not even sure if our extended family will ever get together again for the Holidays.
Coping with Loss During the Holidays
What about you? Is there an empty chair at your Holiday table? While others are having a Norman Rockwall holiday, do you find this wonderful time of the year, quite frankly, heartbreaking?
So how do we move forward and find a new normal in the midst of hard change?
To read the rest of the post, follow me to To Unearth
To read my other posts in my Christmas series, HeartBreak Holiday:
Dysfunctional Disaster Holiday
It’s the Wonderful Time of the Year
Finding Joy in the NICU at Christmas
How to Choose Joy When Deployment Separates Us
I Feel So Sad And Lonely This Holiday Season
Hope and Healing During the Holidays after the Loss of a Loved OneSurviving the Holidays Without You: Navigating Grief During Special Seasons (Good Grief Series) (Volume 1)
Not So Merry & Bright: 10 Tips On How to Cope with Grief During the Holidays
You’ll Get Through This: Hope and Help for Your Turbulent Times
Healing After Loss: Daily Meditations For Working Through Grief
Grieving the Loss of Someone You Love: Daily Meditations to Help You Through the Grieving Process
I am aware that I am extremely blessed to not have this pain, yet. That being said, I find your list helpful! I believe it can be applied to a many number of changes. I especially love your advice on seeing the situation with fresh perspective…understanding and accepting what the new “normal” looks like. >>> “I’m learning to embrace change both good and bad as the medium for growth.” Powerful! This allows God to work in our hearts and lives. I pray all find comfort in this season and all seasons; that God show His mighty hand in everything that comes our way. <3
Katie- Thank you! God is working in everything, it’s our perspective that matters!
The presence of Christ comforts us when we have a sense of loss. I can’t wait until Christ wipes away every tear.
Susan- I can’t wait for that either!