family

“I feel out of sync with my family of origin around the holidays, when I spend more time with them than usual,” wrote one reader recently. “They aren’t interested in honest communication, working on relationships, or other things that are important to me … How can I deal with this in a positive way?

These are challenging times for parents. In our own lifespan we’ve known or been around three different types of parenting challenges.

For our grandparents, the challenges were of the most basic kind: getting enough to eat and trying to keep children alive. My grandparents lost one child at birth, at a time when nearly all births were home-births, and came close to losing my mother to the malaria that was rampant at that time in Florida.

When the holidays approach, we receive a lot of requests from people who are experiencing more conflict and stress in their relationships.

If you’re feeling increased pressures around this time of the year, you’re definitely not alone. Along with the possibilities of great joy in this season come other feelings as well. It’s important to remember that all feelings come through the same “faucet” of your awareness, and that the holidays are an ideal time to open yourself to learning from every relationship moment.