Robert Lee Brewer, at Poetic Asides, http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/default.aspx - a poetry site which I use for inspiration suggested a holiday acrostic for this week. I had trouble thinking which holiday word to use - Christmas? Hanukkah? Winter Solstice? New Year? Finally I settled on the "home for the holidays theme after hearing clients struggle all week with the difficulty of going home or having grown children come home for the holidays - also the joy involved and the opportunities for healing. Since my daughters and grand children all live close and we see each other often we don't have the "home for the holidays" tensions, but I remember them from my twenties. This poem is also partly inspired by the holiday tensions of women friends and is a wish fulfillment poem for Chris' family - a wish that the tension in their home will ease and the love (which I know is there and strong) will fill their home.

Home for the Holidays

Hopeful mother prepares.
Opens attic boxes, recipe file.
Makes cakes, garlands, plans.
Expects tradition to unfold.

Family members gather.
Old resentments rise and fall.
Real conflicts surface.

Tension mounts, tests tradition.
Hour by hour, memories haunt.
Emotions swirl, bright and dark.

Hug in the kitchen clears air.
Oranges and ginger perfume house.
Love rises, stronger than resentment
Important confidences build trust.
Differences shrink to actual size.
Adults and children, children and adults
Yearn to hang onto this day, this memory.
Satisfaction permeates sleeping house.

Victoria Hendricks - 12-24-2008