Dear world, I love the holidays. It wasn’t always that way. When I was a teen, I dread them. I wished I could close my eyes and sleep from Thanksgiving straight through New Year’s and never wakeup. While all the other kids were hanging out together during winter break, I was in my room, praying the phone would ring. I was the one school out cast, bullied for the same reason may be some of you are feeling lonely this holiday season- simply for being different.
That was a long time ago. Many of those same classmates who bullied and excluded me are a part of my life now. I learned the ability to forgive is the greatest gift you can give yourself and others. I also learned that if there’s a painful memory you can’t erase instead of letting it consume you, turn your pain into purpose. Find a way to help others going through the same thing, and it will help you heal too. I did that by sharing my story in a memoir, and with every word I wrote, I felt the bitterness dissipate and my heart open.
The spirit of peace during the holidays must begin with all of us making peace with our own past, searching not for the reasons why we went through what we did, but how we can use those experiences to change the world- Peace Sade Blanco