Tricky Emotional Dishes

This is a tricky day. It is the day before a major hol­i­day. Some peo­ple are already free from their jobs, but for most it will be at noon today or a lit­tle later. There will be a sigh of relief, fol­lowed by exhil­a­ra­tion, nos­tal­gia, and depres­sion.
Depres­sion?
Hol­i­days are not like rou­tine days off. They carry pack­ages of feel­ings — not all of them pleas­ant. You can han­dle them best when you expect them (by midlife you fig­ure out your per­sonal mood cycle). For all of the joy that hol­i­days are sup­posed to bring, you may find your­self blind­sided by an emo­tion or two that run over you like a high speed train.
Hol­i­days are teth­ered to child­hood feel­ings, myths, wishes, and losses. They are also con­nected to excite­ment, dreams, and hopes. The mixed bag of feel­ings may hit you all at once, or may sneak up on you while you are trav­el­ing or prepar­ing for the grand event itself.
I used to run a cri­sis line. It was 24/7. We never had trou­ble get­ting vol­un­teers on key hol­i­days. There is some­thing about being there for oth­ers that helps us deal with our own emo­tional issues. “Hol­i­day blues” are real. They may not be severe enough to put you on the psychiatrist’s couch, but they sure can catch you off guard.
Heads up! Bet­ter yet: Hearts up! Pay atten­tion to the col­lec­tion of feel­ings behind the hol­i­day door you are about to open. Do your­self a favor: Explore the roots of the feel­ings a lit­tle bit. When you do, the feel­ings will pass. Embrac­ing beats analy­sis on this one. Don’t get stuck try­ing to fig­ure it all out. Bit­ter­sweet can be an intrigu­ing taste. You will be deal­ing with as many emo­tions as dishes on the table. Taste a lit­tle of everything.