These Difficult Times

What good would life be without obstacles? Now, I’m not talking about monstrous and unbeatable obstacles but about manageable ones, the kind that when we overcome them, they bring us a tangible, if not a little mild, amount of satisfaction. Celebrating these difficulties is part of what this website is all about.

So when you’re at your family’s house and you are inundated with the overwhelming and often irritating minutia that compose our Christmas experiences, remember this: if it was easy — if dealing with your siblings, your parents, your nieces and nephews, and extended families, the fights, the old wounds, and the great many skeletons-in-the-closet — what would you need to leave for? If living with all of those people was simple and pleasant, you’d probably still be living with them, and what would your life be like then?

So, you owe to those irritants a special nod, a little acknowledgement, for the role they play in the arc of your life. We all do. They’re the tiny roadblocks, repellents, and pinpricks that help us live the lives we do. They’re the reason we move out, the reason we pick where we live, and we expect them when we come back home. So when your pa-tience gets thin, just think to yourself: I won’t be here forever!

Here’s hoping you overcome all the tiny difficulties that assault us this time of year. Merry Christmas!