Merry Christmas
Today is December 25th. For many Christians, and many others, today is a holiday, religious or otherwise. And for me, it’s the same. I’m not a Christian, I’m more of a spiritual Agnostic, but I was raised by Christians and I celebrate this holiday with them as I have always done.
I know you. If you’re reading this because you are the person I’m writing for, then I know you. You have ADHD or you have someone in your life who has ADHD and you’re reading this because you are looking for help, advise, insight, or companionship, you want not to feel alone.
I don’t like to feel alone either
I’m with you. But as I said, today is a holiday. So today I’m not going to write about ADHD. In fact, since I’m always trying to point out that we are people first, and that our ADHD is way down the list of things we’d like others to know about us, I think that today I’d like to share some memories from my childhood with you, ones that may or may not have anything to do with ADHD.
So here goes …
When I was a youth, every year we had a Christmas concert in the tiny village I grew up in. And often those concerts were organized by my mother. The community centre or hall as it was called, was an old church and we had the run of the place for rehearsals for the week prior to the concert. The heat was left low during that week, we had to keep warm by working hard on our parts in the performance.
The concert was far more than singing, it included short plays, skits, recitations and, at the end of the evening, a visit from Santa. The whole thing has a place in my heart as a fond memory.
It was my job on the day of the concert to take the key to the hall, make my way down the street in the cold afternoon air, turn on the furnace and crank up the thermostat to 72. I did this willingly, because it gave me access to the hall piano with no one around to tell me to “go easy.â€
And there’s more
Going back even further, I remember my brothers and I and many cousins eating Christmas dinner on my grandmothers stairs because there were enough steps for us each to have a seat if the little ones doubled up on some of the treads.
And even earlier in my life I remember the joy I would get when my mother would be surprised as she opened the gift that was from my brother and I, even though she would have been the one that had taken us shopping and would have paid for the gift herself. She always managed to have forgotten what it was, and it was always, she would assure us on Christmas morning, just what she had been wanting.
Things maybe aren’t as rosie any more, but …
We have a lot on our plates. We have issues. Some have bothered us a long time and some we are just learning about.
And I’m not saying we should forget about them. I’m saying, let’s just take a break from them, one day off won’t hurt. I’m saying Merry Christmas if you celebrate that, happy holiday if you don’t. I’m saying, in the words of Scrooge, “I suppose you’d better have the whole day off. But be back all the earlier the next morning.†I’m saying, let’s meet back here on Friday.
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And they are apparently too stupid to realize how easy it is to ensure they are called out for their bad behavior.
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    Last reviewed: 24 Dec 2013
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