Blogmas: The Little Christmas House

Once you admit how bad it actually is, life will start to reassert itself. It always does. It won’t be exactly the life you always dreamed of as a younger woman, but it will take another form and you’ll be happy in a whole new way, because you’ll be stronger.” - slightly paraphrased at the beginning, from The Little Christmas House.

Holly is a 30-ish schoolteacher who adores her young charges, and has redecorated her home now that her ex is no longer there. 

One of her newer students is a girl named Eliza, whose single father, Edward has moved her to a new school and a country dream house. Or it will be once it has been given a little love and restoration. 

All three have experienced loss, and are in the beginning stages of healing, but for this post, I intend to focus on Holly.

Facing the Truth & Evolving into More of Who You Are

Life often asks more than we planned to deal with and sometimes more than we think we can bear. And as we find ways to deal with it, because we have to, we are forever changed. 

Alchemized. Into new and more true versions of who we came here to be.

In this book, that is what happens to Holly, who has always wanted children but has been told that she would never be able to have them, after which moment, her boyfriend of ten years walked right out the door.

Once you have fully grieved what you have lost, you will find yourself opening up to happiness in a whole new way. A different sort of happiness, but no less real. And you will begin to see possibilities you weren’t able to see while you were avoiding the pain. - paraphrased, The Little Christmas House.

How true this is, for all of us. 

How can we let go of whatever has been holding us back if we are still running from it? But once we face it squarely, in a “I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghosts,” kind of way, we can move through it with much less drama, and then, begin to heal. 

Once we step onto that path, we are already different. And it may take time to get to know this new, heretofore-unrealized version of ourselves. But it’s worth the patience and the time it takes to discover who we are becoming.

She will wait for us to catch up without getting too far ahead.
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The Process

(1) Grieve and grieve and grieve

(2) Gradually, begin to let go of your loss

(3) Allow time for reshuffling & getting used to what’s new

(4) Return to yourself in a whole new way

(5) Find a different, but deeper happiness

And that’s what we see happening to Holly, in the book, albeit without the identified stages. 

This book is well worth the read.

See you next time!

Love, Jeanine

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