Single during the Holly-days

As everyone knows, you can find everything on the Internet. With that in mind, Cow did some research on this knotty problem of Singlehood at Christmas.

There's the Men's point of view: be careful who you bed, you might regret it. This is refreshingly straight-forward; especially the part about being attracted to "unstable lunatics" because they are the life of the party.

We could just Get Away From It All with a travel trip designed especially for singles: a walk to Donnington Castle for Christmas, followed by some live music and dining....

In case we DO find ourselves batting away intrusive questions, here's some snappy comebacks and a cute picture of a single's Christmas tree.

It's all about cognitive distortion according to: Dr. Victoria, writing from Ireland.

We could just join the Christmas resistance movement: against the shopping.

Delving deeply into the problem:

"Sadly, Christmas can be the unhappiest time of the year for many people - either through family troubles coming to a head as members meet for the big day, or through the despair of having no family at all, and feeling desperately lonely."
Ouch...

And:
If you have a history of unhappy Christmases with your family, the first option to consider is whether to see your birth family at all. "Where considerable damage has been wreaked, and there is no hope of change, it can be preferable to sever contact. This is often the best option as continuing to see the offending person only causes further heartbreak."

But then, if your own family doesn't value you, why would anyone? And, how then to ever trust anyone, if closeness just means people hurt you?

"Well, sadly there are no quick fixes, particularly if you're looking to change other people's behaviors. The first and foremost rule of counseling is that it is very difficult to change other people. But you can change yourself. And therein lies your power." Cow likes this Beth McHugh, who has posted these thoughtful comments.

Topiary hopes everyone in Blog-Land survived the holiday, with their shrubbery mostly intact. Topiary, for one, will be heading to a far-away beach next year.

Heartfelt Moo!