Our brains must make us forget painful things so we don’t fall apart. I tend to be of the stoic, push through the pain, move ahead type. I don’t stop to examine how I feel, and I don’t take to the bed and weep for days, even if that’s what I want to do.
The holiday season from Thanksgiving to New Year’s is creeping closer, and I took Minime to see the Christmas lights in Pigeon Forge Sunday night. On the drive back home, I was thinking about all the lights and decorations and festive music, and suddenly I remembered a whole chain of holiday hurts that I had forgotten. I had shoved them way way wayyyyyy back in the recesses of my heart because at the time they happened, I had to be stoic and brave and tough in front of my kiddo and carry on with the holidays like all was well.
…But the hurts are still there. Despite my efforts to lock them away, I remember. Maybe it’s important to process the hurts now so I can let them go, so I am thinking them through and trying to bid them farewell.