As a reader of blogs myself, I understand the importance of creating thought-provoking pieces and I wanted to create a little space to showcase the vibrant and engaging content of The Colour Yellow Blog.
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The Portfolio will showcase a variety of blog posts and short articles I've written over the years, covering a range of topics and personal insights. With a focus on reader engagement, the page will encourage feedback, social media sharing, and suggestions for future content.
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It's the most wonderful time of the year...unless it's not . 15th December 2024
It's still one of the most famous Christmas songs and I'm sure you know the words.
Written in 1963 and released by pop singer of the time, Andy Williams, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" celebrates the festivities associated with Christmas with references to parties, mistletoe and carolling and sets a magically jolly scene.
But what if it's not the hap-happiest season of all?
I love Christmas!
I love the build up. I love the festive feeling. I love the colder nights, I love the twinkly lights and I feel excited each year come November as we descend into the Christmas madness.
I grew up in a home that loved the true reason for the season, the birth of Jesus. We also embraced all the usual cultural festivities too - we put the tree up together as a family (though my mum definitely re-arranged it all after we'd gone to bed!) we had stockings at the end of our bed waiting to be filled by Father Christmas after he'd enjoyed the mince pie and sherry we'd left out for him and Rudolph had taken a nibble on our carrot. I remember Christmas day mornings where our eyes would light up at the mound of presents tantalisingly waiting to be ripped open to uncover the toy of the year that 'I really must have'. We ate delicious food together, played games and watched whatever Christmas special was showing that year. They were wonderful times - magical and cosy and safe.
For years I just assumed that was how everyone did Christmas. Yes, occasionally a TV advert would give a glimpse of an alternate scene and tug on your heartstrings for a donation. Mostly, though, I never saw the darker side of Christmas growing up.
It was only as I got older - as the years passed by and I found I didn't have 'that special someone' to share Christmas with in matching pyjamas, that I discovered that even in the midst of the lights and festive cheer, and even with family and friends around me, Christmas can be an awfully lonely, bittersweet place to be. I very much felt left behind and, truth be told, a bit abandoned in the race of life, like I was miles behind everybody else as the clock of life was ticking away. I let comparison and envy steal the joy that was in front of me.
But even my lonely years aren't a patch on what some people face at Christmas.
It's a season that is strangely exposing, in a way the rest of the year isn't. Perhaps because it comes at the end of a year, I feel it forces you to take stock of the past 12 months and really look back at the life you've led and, too often in my case, to focus on what I still didn't have in it. It's a time that you're acutely aware of friendships and family relationships, or the lack of them, as everyone asks how you're spending Christmas and where you'll be. I'm increasingly learning to assume nothing when it comes to the holiday season and how others feel about it; rather to gently give space to whatever response I get to questions about Christmas, now understanding that they will consist of layers of complex experience and emotion.
And don't get me started on the expectations of Christmas! From work deadlines, to social events; the annual 'Friendmas' to family time, everyone has skin in the game at Christmas and it can feel like an impossible juggle to manage it all, as well as trying to find a slither of time to slow down and relax!
With hindsight, I realise I spent too many Christmas' striving to tick all the boxes, looking around and only seeing what wasn't there, rather than all the beauty that is.
The antidote, I'm discovering is to cling on to the joy as hard as I can. In the past few years, I've begun to really relish the Christmas' I get to spend with my parents opening presents together; the times with my brother laughing as we recount memories of Christmas times gone by. And now, having my 'special someone' to share it all with too, even if shift working means our Christmas this year will look a little different again.
Christmas can be hard, painful and lonely and I don't want to down play or diminish that.
But, I do also believe there are nuggets of wonder and joy to be found, if you're prepared to look around...just not on social media!
An encouragement to Savour! December 7th 2024
Hi there - thanks for stopping by!
I didn't quite know where to start with the first blog post I would put on here so I figured I would start where I am. Where we are. In the season of Advent.
Recently I've been hearing the same things I've heard year on year -
"I can't believe it's December";
"How did we get here?";
"Gosh the year has flown by".
I have to smile to myself because I feel the same way each year as December begins. Like I had so many plans and goals and hopes for the year and I start to ponder a little bit and take stock of where they all got to and, I guess, how I've fared. If you know me, you know I spend a lot of time in this space, but I'm learning to be kind to myself when doing this exercise. It does me no good to be critical of what I haven't achieved or things I haven't done, so I try to focus on those experiences I have had and my achievements, big or small. To be honest, mostly they're on the smaller side these days. But that's okay.
Funnily enough, the catalyst for this blog is that I'm re-reading an Advent devotion by Hannah Brencher who is a writer and blogger that I follow. (*Hint hint* She's really good and I definitely recommend that you check her out!)
She does a series on Advent and last year I was really struck by one of the days in which she talks about Elizabeth from the Bible account of the Christmas story (you can find it in Luke 1) and how amazingly she reacted to her miracle pregnancy. To fill in the gaps a little, if you're not familiar with the story, Elizabeth is understood to be Mary's (mother to Jesus) cousin. The Bible says that Elizabeth and her husband were devout followers of God but that they were both old and childless as Elizabeth couldn't conceive. Despite these circumstances, they had been praying and longing for a child for a long long time.
Anyway, old Liz does get pregnant! But rather than shouting about it in the Town square and telling all her friends and family about the impossible happening for them, rather than celebrating with her husband, the Bible says that she goes off by herself and spends the next 5 months of her pregnancy in seclusion. Alone, but with God.
Elizabeth was savouring the miracle that God had done in her life.
Frustratingly, the Bible doesn't go into much more detail about this! It doesn't tell us how or where she was secluded and it doesn't tell us the reaction of her husband or her friends and family - and I bet they had some opinions on it!!! But I think that's because none of that stuff really matters. I think the Bible doesn't fill us in on any of the ancillary details around Liz's seclusion because the the key takeaway is that she took herself off and spent time with God savouring all that he had done.
I love, admire and am really challenged by Elizabeth's example.
Obviously they didn't have social media back then, but it would have been so easy for her to run and tell everyone she knew (and those she didn't!). If I was her, I would have wanted to flaunt that miracle to those who had questioned why I was still hoping for something that seemed humanly impossible. And I don't think she would have been wrong to do that.
But here's the thing - I think Elizabeth knew that there's something extra special waiting for us when we can store those miracle things and just savour them with God. When we don't rush to publicize our news but we sit with God first. When we savour it before we share it.
It's funny because I remember journaling on it last year, writing that I'd read something a while back which said to remember that right now you're living in the answer of something you prayed for and to be grateful for that as you ask for the next thing.
So I just wanted to share and encourage whoever's reading this, whether or not you have a faith, to practice gratitude this Advent. To be grateful for all the things that you have and to really savour what's in front of you before you seek out what's next. Especially as we approach the end of the year and momentum starts to build towards a new year, new resolutions and goals.
It can be so easy to rush past and move on from our own miracles that have happened throughout the year. To miss out on being truly present in the moment, drawing out and savouring the right here and right now and remembering the last 12 months.
In my journaling last year, I noted that I knew my time would come for a wedding and to start a family but I decided that for right then I would savour my boyfriend - having him by my side in life, in the church that we go to and in our prayer life with God. The funny thing is that in February this year he proposed (hooray!!!) and in September we got married! So I really am living out the exact hopes and prayers that I was longing for this time last year. It's crazy what can happen in 12 months.
I know that won't be a consolation for some of you reading this. I know that sometimes stories like mine can feel like salt in a painful wound. I know because that's how I felt for such a long time as I watched others' lives play out the very thing I desperately wanted for myself. The one thing I would say is to keep hoping and praying for those things you long for and to trust that God knows all about them and he also knows the right time and the right way to to give them to you. That's certainly been my experience over the years.
So, taking my lead from Elizabeth, I plan to spend some time in the coming days before Christmas thinking about and savouring what 2024 had for me; the amazing miraculous answers to prayer but also the hard times, and please don't get me wrong, there have been many!
I want to take stock of it all before I jump into a new year with all that that may bring.
I encourage you to do the same - take some time to sit down and reflect on the past year; your ups and downs, those things which have really made you smile but also the things that maybe made you cry. It might be that there are more of the latter times than the former. And that's okay. Life is full of seasons and it helps to remember that just like in nature, the spring follows winter and new things and better days are coming.
If you're looking for more from me, I've linked previous blogs I've written for Work Life Central - check them out below...!
Live. Laugh. Love.
Falling into Place
My journey into High Performance
Create Your Own Website With Webador