Happy Holidays from Write on Fight on!

I woke up on Christmas Eve morning at 10 am, which is absurdly late for me. Even on weekends I’m out of bed by 7 am.

The reason?

My children are getting an XBox for Christmas and I was up until 2:30 am installing updates, setting up parental controls, creating their accounts, and downloading games.

This sounds harmless but we’ve come along way form the 1990’s and the plug-and- go simplicity of the Sega Genesis.

Today, the internet is involved. You have to visit websites and create user names and enter passwords and supply credit card numbers.

And anytime the internet is involved I’m always crossed. A bit mystified, a bit cautious. Like how am I suppose to have blind faith in something I can’t see and is difficult to understand?

I had no idea what I was doing.

My contacts began to dry. Frustration, then exhaustion made me edgy.

At 1:00 am I watched youtube tutorials on “how to setup an XBox”.

At 1:15 am I began talking out loud, as if someone was sitting on the couch with me.

At 1:45 am I cursed Microsoft.

Sometime after 2:00 am I cursed Bill Gates.

Then, around 2:15 am, I hit the right buttons, clicked the right choices, and with a pair of blurry contact lenses found success.

At 2:30 am I slipped into bed and fell asleep and awoke at 10 am the next morning to my 5 year old shrieking, “IT’S CHRISTMAS EVE!”.

The holidays take a toll on us. And by “us” I mean adults. Buying the perfect gift. Hosting the perfect dinner. Providing our children with the perfect holiday experience. We want everything to be perfect and when something fails to meet out expectations we get stressed, angry, and upset.

I believe the morning hours, even a late morning ones, are meant for reflection. How can I be better today than yesterday? How can I free myself of yesterday’s frustrations and move on?

So it took awhile to set up the Xbox. Boiled my blood. Cost me some sleep. So what?

My illness has taught me life will never go as planned. Like Christmas, life will never be perfect. We will never be free of troubles.

But that doesn’t mean you stop doing. That you stop believing in things you can’t see like God, hope, the internet and the spirit of Christmas.

Because in real life, and in spite of our troubles, we build real things and share those real things with real people.

And in doing so, we grow, forge a bond, and together we breath life into things we can not see but can only name like God, hope, the internet and the spirit of Christmas.

And that’s what I’m doing here.

I am building a virtual platform so I can share my real story with you. To comfort you, to entertain you, and to help you make better sense of your own life as I try to make sense of my own.

I wish you a healthy and joyous holiday season.

And after all the songs are sung, apple pie eaten, and gifts given I hope you find time to reflect on your life, your story and find strength to accept yourself and all the beauty and scars that make you imperfectly perfect.

Thank you for letting inviting me into your internet, into your inbox, and into your life.

Happy Holidays!

Be well,

Jay