I feel a bit weird about writing ‘Happy Holidays’ this year. It’s been such a shitty year for so many people, and I don’t want to toss off a flippant greeting to someone whose days will be anything but happy. I don’t want to make anyone feel worse than they already do.
But yet, I do wish everyone happiness. I know we can’t be happy all the time; that’s why it’s a ‘wish’ and not a ‘command’. And I really don’t want to croak out some gloomy pronouncement that’s supposed to sound positive but actually just drags people down. (Now I’m imagining Marvin, the depressive robot from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, moaning, “I’ll wish you Happy Holidays, but you won’t like it.”)
What can I offer instead? Best wishes for peace of mind and peace of home. Hope for the future. Comfort and strength for those who are struggling. Above all, good health. I want those things for everyone, not just now but all year round.
And you know what? I wish us all ‘Happy Holidays’. Not as a thoughtless rote greeting, but as a sincere hope and a positive intention. May we all find joy where we can, when we can; no matter how large or small the measure.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Book 16 update: I’m on Chapter 28 and Aydan is awash in complications. Now I have to decide whether to help her out or pile on a few more problems just to see what she does. Authors: Part empath, part sadist. 😉
Author Diane Henders 
Beautifully stated!! Here’s to a better 2021 for all!
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Thanks, Kirt! Amen to that. 🙂
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Very compassionate and Amen to all of it! Wishing us all better times and as many blessings as our hearts can hold.
Be well and safe and hopeful everyone!
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Thanks, Michelle! I think (hope) we’ll all be a lot more thankful for any blessings we receive, after a year like 2020. 🙂
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Just wish everyone a wonderful bunch of holidays and be done with it. Half the country will be struggling and half will not. But it is what it is. So have a wonderful season and drink a little for me in whatever you want to call it.
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Sounds good to me! I didn’t get any eggnog this year, so some of my homemade strawberry hard cider will have to do. Cheers! 🙂
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Best wishes to you and yours and I hope next year heals the many wounds of 2020.
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A wonderful thought. I hope so, too. 🙂
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Happy holidays, peace and comfort to you and Phill. I too was troubled trying to write a blog post today. So many many people will not have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday or whatever. They will just be struggling to survive. Those who will have a reasonably normal Christmas are more than a little privileged. I am comforted by your ending wishes. Thank you. Love and hugs
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You’re welcome, and I’m glad you found comfort. Blogging can be tough sometimes, can’t it? First there’s the struggle to sort out our own feelings, then comes the tricky task of expressing them.
I haven’t made it over to your blog yet, but will drop by soon. 🙂
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Wishing you peace, comfort and hope. And thanks for that update on Aydan!
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You’re welcome, Jeanie! And thank you for your good wishes. 🙂
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My sentiments exactly! Part of me wants to skip the whole “happy holidays” thing (I don’t even feel like writing a blog, but I will, tomorrow), but a bigger part still wants to wish everyone happiness, love, and comfort. It’s a tricky thing.
I sometimes envy the fiction author: you have so much control over… everything in the story! Happy writing and happy holiday season, Diane!
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Thank you! Yes, fiction is much easier to control than real life. Writing your memoir must have been satisfying, though. And hey, even if we can’t control our lives, at least we can make good stories out of them! 🙂
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I just read a great quote from the singer/writer Patti Smith. She said “As a writer, I’ll get as dark as I have to be – you can be a pacifist or a murderer in your work.” I loved that!
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That’s an awesome quote! I’m also fond of “Never piss off a writer, or they’ll kill you horribly in their next book”. Maybe, just maybe, I might have done that… once or twice… ish. 😉
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I know that the general situation nobody says merry Christmas and some people are there trying to take it off the books but I would appreciate a Me Christmas from you and I think the people that follow you would.You do a great job and I look forward every month to your letters, and your books of course. To you and yours a merry Christmas go inGod‘s light
Sent from my iPad
>
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A very Merry Christmas to you and yours, too, and all the blessings of the season! 🙂
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Well put, Diane! I sincerely concur. Happy Holidays
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Thanks, and the same to you. 🙂
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And right back at you! Crap year, for sure, but brighter days are ahead. THEY BETTER BE, OR THERE IS GOING TO BE REAL TROUBLE!!!
Seriously, I do send you all the very best wishes for the holidays and especially for the new year. We’re all about due, I think. 👍👍
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Thank you, and I completely agree. We’re definitely due. Overdue, in fact. But hey, when things finally turn around, we’re going to be SO appreciative! Nothing makes us more grateful than being temporarily denied the things we take for granted and then having them restored. (Guess Mom and Dad knew what they were doing with those ‘time-outs’. Are we just getting a ‘time-out’ from Mother Nature?)
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Okay. I’ll just call it a time out. Uh, nope. I’m not letting 2020 off that easy. It was a crap year. It needs to own it. 😁
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LOL! Tough love. Works for me. Can we give 2020 a time-out?
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Well, I still vote for a ass whuppin. 🤪😜
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Seems fair to me. 😉
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Along these lines, just need to share I bought matching shirts for my cousin and I with this on the front: Wine – (noun) The glue holding this 2020 shitshow together. Although if it doesn’t improve quickly in the first part of the year, I may need to find a fabric paint pen and add “and 2021” to it!
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Ha! Love it! Yep, if nothing else, 2020 introduced a whole lotta people to the idea of day-drinking. 😉
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Nine more days, and 2020 will be behind us! 🥳 (Does that mean we have to stop the day-drinking??)
And on that upbeat note, I’ll send you and hubby the best wishes we can from Casa Rudy. We’re keeping it low key here ourselves, staying settled in and safely away from the infected (infested?) masses. Have a good one! 🥂
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Thanks, Rudy™! And I’m not sure about stopping the day-drinking. That seems like a big step. Maybe we should just rename ‘day-drinking’ to ‘anticipatory cocktail hour(s)’. If at first you don’t succeed, redefine success. 😉
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Thank you for the wishes. Hope you and your family (and all your readers) have a great Christmas and an even better New Year
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Thanks, Louisa! We’re looking forward to a family phone call tonight — our family is spread across the country so we’re rarely together in one place anyway. It will be a good Christmas!
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Happy Holidays!
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Thanks! 🙂
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2020 is almost over. 2021 has to be better, doesn’t it? Have a Happy Holiday season!
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Thanks, Jono! I’m almost afraid to tempt fate by saying 2021 has to be better, but I’m hoping hard! By the way, are you blogging at a different site now? I haven’t seen anything new at your original site for a while.
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Thank you.
Hope is a fragile essential and I love your wishes – and reciprocate.
I am really, really hoping for a pandemic of kindness to hit in 2021. Along with health and happiness for the world.
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Wouldn’t that be wonderful! I’m going to hope for that, too. 🙂
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Thank you for your lovely post. I hope you have a happy, joyful and peaceful holiday. Best wishes for an improved 2021.
PS — try not to be too sadistic to Ayden!
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LOL! I promise it’ll all work out okay for her in the end. 🙂 Thank you for your good wishes!
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Beautifully expressed Diane. Here’s to finding joy where we can. I’m currently watching the sunshine glisten of the super sized snowbanks on our front lawn. It really is pretty. These days one might have to look harder for happiness but there are moments. I too hope that folks who are struggling find peace, support and comfort.
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It’s been far too easy to get dragged down lately. I feel so much better when I can disconnect from the news even for a short time, and fully concentrate on all the beauty and goodness that’s still in the world. 🙂
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So true! I can not bear to listen to any of it some days. Focusing on the good here as well.
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Thanks very much. All the best you can muster now and better in 2021!
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Thanks! Here’s hoping for a wonderful 2021! 🙂
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