Merry Christmas!

Peace On Earth and Goodwill To All

Earthrise (NASW Photo) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

It this time of year that we reflect on all that has happened this past year and to give thanks. However, for many it is not a time to rejoice, it is a time of loneliness, their families may have moved and left them behind, their family or spouse might have pasted away leaving them without any close relatives or their children might be at their in-laws for this holiday, for whatever the reason, it is a lonely time.

Many of us instead will be separated from our because of bias we are being separated because of COVID. 

Some maybe quarantined, some out of worry for catching or spreading the virus, so for the travel bans in their states and some because they don’t have any homes to go to for the holidays. For whatever the reason this is going to be again a very different Christmas from all the others.

But still for many in the LGBT community it is an especially lonely time,

they might not have seen their family since they came out to them. Their families and children have disowned them. Sometimes when we do attend the gathering, we feel like outcasts, like the square peg in the round hole, we just don’t fit in, we are tolerated when we bring our partners or ourselves to the table.

This year I will be cooking a turkey breast and having some friends over because it is getting harder for me to drive at night and going down and back to New Jersey in one day is also getting to be too much. Getting a hotel room will be hard because I would have to drive over strange roads in the dark so I decided to stay home and have some friends over for the day.

Thursday, I met my brother and sister-in-law for lunch as they drove down to my niece's house in New Jersey and from their after the holidays they will be heading down to Florida for they winter. Every year they turn into "Snowbirds" and they will be coming back in the spring.

So let us open our hearts and doors to them and think of them this holiday season, give them a call, have a Zoom get-together or drop them a Christmas card, let them know that they are remembered.

I leave you with this Christmas song by Nat King Cole - Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

An American traditional songs...

And a cute little video...