Last night I posted a rather downhearted response in another thread about Christmas, then deleted it later. I didn't want to hijack what was probably meant to be a joyful thread. But I've been thinking throughout the night about it, and decided that maybe it's not such a bad idea to start a separate thread for those of us who DO find Christmas stressful and/or sad and don't find it easy to be merry and bright for many reasons.

So I thought I'd see if there is any interest in starting a Christmas Support Group here, for those of us who know we're going to be struggling with Christmas this year. We do know that it's a joyful season and that there are lots of reasons to be glad and grateful and to celebrate, and inside of our hearts, we do celebrate, or want to celebrate, as best as we can. But for many of us, it's hard to do that "mind over matter" thing 24/7 and ignore the ongoing agonies in our life. We do smile through the pain and we do wrap the gifts and make the holidays as bright and joyful as we can, but inside of us, some of us are hurting so bad that it's more of a struggle and burden than the joy it is for so many others.

Would anyone else be interested in having this thread around? If so, I have to ask that everyone who participates here be compassionate and understanding with those of us who are still "works in progress" and who just can't muster up the "merry and bright" as easily as others can. The last thing we need is more condemnation or more people telling us to just get over it. Some things aren't easily gotten over, even (or especially) at Christmas.

I'd like to provide a safe place for us strugglers to vent, weep, share stress stories, and then bolster each other up by listening and caring...just helping each other through the next few weeks.

Anyone interested? As many of you know I'm not here as often as I'd like. I'm very scattered these days, but do try to get here at least once in the mornings and again in the evenings. So if something gets started here, and you don't see me here for awhile, don't think I've "dined and dashed" - I'll be back! Life is overwhelming me these days (which is partly why I need this kind of support right now!)