All I Want For Christmas Is…Hope

2023 has been a rough year for a lot of people. For me, personally, the early part of this year was financially devastating. And every day since then has been a stressful climb back to some semblance of normalcy. In this economy, it's a tough task. But maybe Christmas brings some hope for you this year!

I know I'm not the only one struggling this year. While some politicians will tout the jobs numbers as an indication that our economy is doing well, ask any regular American how they're doing and you'll get a different story.

For many, like myself, it takes more than one job to make ends meet these days. For most of us, grocery store trips are now a hair-raising voyage into inevitable dread at the cash register. Gas refills are a gloomy reminder that most of my excursions from home involve going to work. It's downright depressing!

For Thanksgiving this year, I decided to focus on the good things going on in my little world. So imagine my surprise when putting up my Christmas tree, I found a glimmer of what has blossomed into full blown hope for the future! Something about reflecting on Christmases Past as we adorned the tree with ornaments from my mom's childhood, my youth and my son's baby chotchkie's something came over me that I really wasn't expecting! In the day-to-day grind it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. It's when we take a step back, take a deep breath and really focus on the good things that we start to see the good that CAN be.

Now I'm no Pollyanna. I didn't develop a sudden magical power to change my circumstances. In fact, nothing physically has changed at all. But for the first time in a really long time I'm starting to feel the beginnings of possibilities for things that I haven't let myself feel in decades. Maybe there's some hope out there for us after all.