Shannon's Corner

  SHANNON’S CORNER HOPE OF THE WORLD! Jesus is the reason for this Christmas season. He is our Prince of Peace, our joy to the world, and love that came down. Jesus has already come as a baby, Messiah and Savior and he is yet to come as our King of kings and Lord of lords.  Are you ready to receive?  Are you eagerly anticipating his coming again? We as adults can many times make things so complex and complicated when it is really, simple.  As I was preparing for the Third Culture Kid debrief, I had many games and activities ready in my arsenal to use, yet what was needed was time to just be kids and play.  The family just recently got back to the US, so they were in the throes of transition in hitting the ground running with the holidays, seeing family, supporters, and friends.  The kids needed a space for them to use their imaginations and creativity.  Play gave them back some control in all the chaos of uncertainty in the transiti...

  The Christmas season should be a time of joy and celebration but for some it is a time of loss, sadness, and grief.   My first Christmas living overseas brought a lot of loss and grief that I did not expect. I was caught unawares. The things I associate with Christmas and the holiday season were not there, not available, or were just different.  Celebrating Christmas in 90-degree weather when putting up Christmas tree and decorations instead of the cold and snow. A different type of 'cozy and warm' feeling. As I would walk the streets of my neighborhood, the outside Christmas lights would be on no matter what time of day and playing bits of Christmas songs not at all in sync and not the whole song or chorus. The noise at first was jarring and then you would have all these partial Christmas songs playing through your head on a sound loop.  One of the big things I associate Christmas are the tastes, smells, and even the feel of things. Not being able to find the ingr...

  Transitions during the holidays can be quite stressful from all the demands, expectations, travel, delays, buying, decorating, baking, wrapping, long lines, lack of sleep, and the list goes on and on.    How can you have a positive experience this holiday season?  What kind of person are you usually during the holiday season? What kind of person do you want to be this holiday season? On a scale of one to ten (1=low expectations, 10=very high expectations), rate where your expectations are for the holidays. If your expectations are a six or higher, what is one thing you can do to lower those expectations? What is one thing you can do to reduce you r stress?   Taking a few moments today to pause and reflect on these questions can help to shift your mindset of who you want to be, what is realistic, and how to have a positive experience during this holiday season. And if things come unexpectedly, you are more able to navigate and manage it instead of it being the ...