Feliz Navida

I was going to call my Christmas message this year Christmas in the Hood, but since I already did that on Father's day I thought I'd talk about another challenging topic and that is dealing with loss at Christmas. Christmas is supposed to be such a happy time. Yet suicide rates increase this time of year. Most families aren't perfect so all the pressure of getting together at Christmas sometimes brings heartache and sorrow. Especially for lost loved ones.

Earlier I talked a little bit about how much I liked the movie Collateral Beauty. Everyone deals with loss in different ways. Lindsey Stirling said when she lost her best friend to cancer it really set her back and she took a considerable amount of time to grieve that loss before putting out her latest album Brave Enough which meant she was brave enough to come back after that loss.

My daughter was face timing with some friends from Honduras the other day. They had all the young cousins together and were setting off fireworks at night. Something I could relate to before fireworks became a banned substance in Surrey. Sometimes she'd put me on and since I don't speak Spanish I'd always be at a loss of what to say and usually just come out with a yo que pasa hombre, como estas? This time there was several young children present and all I could think of was the Christmas song feliz navidad so I shouted out feliz navidad! Then the young children who didn't speak english remembered that song and all started singing the english verse I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart. It was priceless.

That wonderful little girl had just lost her mother to cancer and this would be her first Christmas without her mother yet they had a very close extended family. Money can't buy that. Peace.