Maybe the pandemic has canceled your traditional holiday plans.

Maybe your normal plans are still happening, minus a loved one.

Maybe this tumultuous year has changed your circumstances and you are embarking on your first holiday post-divorce, breakup, or move out.

Maybe this was the Christmas your infant should be turning one, but he isn’t here.

Maybe you’re a military family, like me, and spending this season alone.

Maybe you are surrounded by people, yet still feeling left out, confused, and alone.

Whatever the reason, I bet you’re wondering how you’re going to cope. Longing for “next year” when life is better or at least more normal. Longing for the place that feels better than the place you’re in now.

Maybe you forced yourself to decorate despite how you feel. Maybe you sold your decorations and bought smaller ones. Maybe you are forgoing holiday decorations altogether, not knowing how to muster the strength to feign any jolly at all.

Maybe all you can focus on is how alone you feel.

Maybe that feeling consumes you.

Maybe you are exhausted from carrying the weight of pretending to be more okay than you are.

Maybe you sleep too much or not enough.

Maybe your idea of a holiday has shifted drastically, and you are struggling to learn who you are now.

Whatever your circumstances, no matter how lonely you feel, please remember this:

You are worthy.

You are loveable.

You are brave.

You are strong.

You are all of this—just as you are, right at this moment, today and tomorrow. Whatever you are feeling, no matter how dark or bleak those thoughts may be, all of this remains true.

You are enough.

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