RESOLVE (the National Infertility Association) has published a newsletter entitled "Coping with the Holidays" wherein various authors offer their musings on practical solutions for making it through this time of year with as few breakdowns as possible. The general gist is to explore yourself, figure out what your limits are and then operate accordingly, which I think is generally good advice. Where I part ways with most of the authors is the general attitude that we should just wallow in our misery and check out of life. I don't think that checking out of all things family is really a very practical solution, but I appreciate the concept of setting limits and there are some very useful, practical suggestions in the articles. It should be noted that the articles are very repetitive of each other which I don't quite understand but that's not really important.
However, what makes this newsletter worth downloading and reading is the article on page 3 entitled Looking Beyond Madonna and Child. The author challenges us to look beyond the pain that this icon and the similar manger can instill and seek out the scriptures for other symbols and gestures of God's grace and love. It's a beautiful, challenging article and is less than 1 page long so when you have a minute, I think you might appreciate reading it.
Hat Tip: Trish
