The Holidays

Well, here we are! December again. Halloween and Thanksgiving have passed, and we are heading toward the end-of-year holidays. The ultimate climax of the holiday trio!!!

By now you’re, hopefully, slowly starting to get past whatever happened between you and your family on Thanksgiving. This might’ve been a tough Thanksgiving for some who have families with differing political views from each other.

Thanksgiving can be weird that way. Still, though, we end up talking through some things and learning about each other and hopefully hugging it out by the end. As much as we hate our families sometimes, we also love them so we can’t just walk away. I mean, sometimes we do in the moment, but there has to be some sort of reconciliation, eventually.

I don’t know, maybe this is good for us. Arguing about politics and religion with our families is a little safer than with strangers. Like I said, there’s already existing and hopefully unconditional love involved with family members. Of course, that’s not always true but usually there’s some semblance of love among the arguing parties when they are related. These kinds of arguments can actually be very educational. Theyteach us how to talk about politics with compassion and care. That can be applied when we have to talk to strangers about it.

Anyway, enough about Thanksgiving. Here comes Christmas. I will refer to the end-of-year holidays as Christmas for simplicity’s sake. Just know that I mean however you and yours mark the winter solstice is cool with me.

Right now I’d like to just offer a short reminder. We’ve all heard this before and it’s always good to remember that the holidays are hard for everyone. They are hard because we get thrown out of our routines, Roads and stores get full and attitudes get fierce. Financially, the end of year can be really difficult for some with the added pressure of having to provide gifts, lodging, and extra food. You know, all the things that happen during the holidays.

Those things are just a din of noise that we all endure throughout October, November, and December. Even into January sometimes. For me, sometimes it lasts all the way through tax season.

For some folks, though, the holidays have a much wider scope of difficulty and emotional hardship.

If you’re alone or lonely, the holidays can amplify that 100 fold. If you’ve lost someone or had anything bad happen in past holiday seasons, it can stain the feeling most folks feel in the holidays forever. Obviously, we all work on absorbing our own traumatic experiences, but if they happen at the holidays, it can change things drastically.

There are millions of reasons why people have a hard time this time of year. No reason is more intense than the next. Everything is relative to the person who’s coping with what they’re coping with.

I think the holidays can serve as a wonderful reminder to remember that everyone is going through something. Everybody’s got baggage and pain and issues whether they’re small, large, or somewhere in between. Not just during the holidays but all times of year. Walking into every situation with compassion, even when you’re met with the opposite, can change the world for good. I truly believe that with all my heart. I do lose sight of that and disconnect from that a lot and that’s when my own hurt and baggage comes out. That’s when I’m so thankful for the people around me who treat me with compassion and love anyways.

The holidays multiply folks’ pain as much as their joy. The universe is a balanced place. Maybe I can implore you all to try and approach one another with compassion and understanding even when you wanna choke each other out. Count to 10, take deep breaths, go outside and spit, or have a shot. Whatever you gotta do to breathe through it.

We are all in this together and we are at each other’s mercy. Try and interact with your fellow humans with love in the lead and see how it changes your own happiness.

Happy holidays and thank you, San Diego! This coming year I’ll celebrate my 40th year as a professional musician. I’m very very grateful to countless people.

Happy holidays and happy new year.

Jeff Berkley
619-957-3111
www.jeffberkley.com