🖤👑❤️ ~Christina Love~ 🖤👑

💚 ~Christmas used to feel simple to me. I didn’t think much about how the season could carry two very different truths at once. Now I know better. Grief has a way of changing the way the lights look, the way the music sounds, even the way the days feel a they get shorter.

❤️ ~Some years I catch myself trying to step back into old routines, as if doing things the same way might bring back a piece of what I lost. But the season doesn’t fit the same anymore, and I’ve learned that it’s okay to admit that.

💚 ~What hits hardest are the small things I never expected. A familiar ornament tucked in a box. A recipe I haven’t touched because it belonged to someone who in’t here to taste it. Even walking past certain stores can trigger memories that knock the wind out of me. There’s no warning. No pattern. Just a reminder that love leaves marks that don’t fade on command.

❤️ ~I’ve stopped forcing myself to power through December. Instead, I’ve started choosing what I can handle. Some traditions stay because they still feel like home. Others I’ve quietly let go. I’ve made room for slower mornings, quieter evenings, and the kind of honesty that doesn’t come easy when everyone around you is trying to be cheerful.

💚 ~Creating tiny rituals has helped. Lighting a candle. Saying a few words out loud. Sitting with a photo for a minute before the day gets busy. It doesn’t fix anything, but it gives my grief a place to sit so it doesn’t have to take over the whole room.

❤️ ~When people ask how I’m doing, I’ve learned to answer in a way that’s true, not polite. Sometimes I need company. Sometimes I need space. Sometimes I just need someone to understand that I’m doing the best I can in a season that feels both full and empty.

💚 ~If you’re grieving this Christmas, I hope you give yourself the same permission. You don’t have to be festive to prove anything. You don’t have to be strong every minute. You only have to be real.

❤️ ~There’s still room for tenderness in the middle of all this. It might show up in a quiet moment. or a memory that makes you smile instead of break, It might not show up at all this year, and that’s okay too. Christmas doesn’t have to look perfect to be meaningful. It just has to make space for where you are now.

🖤 ~with immense love, ❤️

🖤👑 ~christina love~ ❤️