highly sensitive power

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.

~ Mother Teresa

Five ways to beat the family holiday blues:

1. Ask about what you want to know. What’s it like having a second husband? How did you survive the war? Why does Aunt Mabel dislike you so much? Who was your first love? Can I borrow the car?

2. Convince your favourite person at the gathering to do something alone with you. Take a walk. Go out for tea or cocktails. Hang out at the local bookstore together. Play Frisbee in the park in the snow. Visit the wax museum.

3. Watch The Family Stone. Watch it alone and cry. Or laugh until you cry. Watch it in the room that will gather a crowd. Try out the recipe for the Morton Family Strata (see the DVD special features). Watch it again. Show it as a double feature with Dan in Real Life.

4. Get a hotel room. Do it from the beginning. Or do it after a day or so. Do it for yourself if you need to, when you need to. Even a cheap motel can be a relief. Tell everyone – or don’t. Invite someone else who appears to need a break over for pizza and frank talk or silliness.

5. Examine yourself. Write 100 pages in your journal (at the dining table while they’re cleaning up around you, while everyone else is watching TV, in your hotel room bed) in answer to the question What false expectations about my family do I need to let go of?

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

~ Carl Jung