A Holiday Message (Patreon)

In a 2014 video, Heather Feather shared an affirmation that has become a favorite saying of mine: Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful. This is a phrase that I’ve repeated to myself countless times since then when I’ve felt overwhelmed and disappointed. When I’ve struggled with things not going the way I had hoped they would.

It was this phrase that I turned to when my seven-year-old wanted to carve a jack-o’-lantern as a family on Halloween, but our local supermarket was completely sold out of pumpkins. We carved a honeydew melon instead. It was this phrase I thought of when my husband and I were still up, completely exhausted, wrapping gifts at 4 A.M. on Christmas morning, and I needed to make a creative alteration to a gift bag. Then, I thought of it again today. Our family had a difficult Christmas Eve and wound up skipping “Taco Tuesday”—a corny but sweet weekly tradition that means a lot to us—so tonight we made up for it by celebrating Thaco Thursday together.

These little, silly victories are just a small part of the complicated landscape of our family story. We don’t always bounce back from life’s disappointments in a way that makes for a cute anecdote. But I’ve found that I can get a surprising amount of mileage from the little victories at times when exhaustion is long and it seems like life is threatening a sentence of death by a thousand cuts.

Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful.

No one understands the challenges you face better than you do. There will be times when even a little victory isn’t manageable. But this holiday season, my wish for you is that, at least once, you’re able to tap into the creativity and emotional resourcefulness needed for a small win that will sustain you when you really need it.

I love you and I’m so thankful to have you all in my life. You’ve been there for me and supported me through a lot of really difficult moments. Thank you for the opportunity you’ve given me to be there for you in my own way. What we’ve built together sustains me in a way that makes me feel immensely blessed.

Love,
JB

(Image description: A gift bag that says, “It’s your birthday,” altered to say, “It’s your birthday, Jesus!” Additional inset photo of a jack-o’-lantern carved from a honeydew.)