The holiday season is here, and with it comes a wave of both joy and reflection. It’s easy to get caught in the hustle of it all—shopping, parties, traditions—but this time of year also brings a unique opportunity for introspection. We are, as we always have been, in the process of becoming, but we can forget that. The pressure of perfection, the weight of unmet expectations, and the endless comparison to the seemingly perfect lives we see around us can make us feel like we’re falling short.
It’s tempting, especially now, to mourn the lives we aren’t living—the ones that seem more fulfilled, more meaningful, more successful. It’s easy to think that if we had taken that other job, chosen that other path, lived in that other place, we would be happier. But as Sartre reminds us, "life begins on the other side of despair," and perhaps what we need is not another life but a new way of seeing the one we already have.
We can never know for sure if those other lives would have been better or worse. The one we’re living. Right here. Right now. We are already in the process of becoming something, even if we can’t always see it. Even when it feels like we’re stuck, or not where we thought we would be, we are still in motion. We contain all the possibilities we need, and there is something incredibly liberating about recognizing that we are not defined by any one moment or choice. In fact, the real gift of the holiday season might just be the realization that we don’t have to do everything in order to be everything. We already contain infinite potential.
This season, especially when things feel chaotic or difficult, is an invitation to stop and breathe. To pause and recognize that we don’t need to escape our reality in search of a better one. Often, it’s not the place we are in, but the perspective from which we view it that makes all the difference. Gratitude can be the key that unlocks this shift. Gratitude doesn’t ask us to ignore our struggles or pretend everything is perfect—it simply invites us to acknowledge the gifts already present in our lives, however small they may seem.
As we step into the new year, we can remember that the lives we long for are often reflections of the lives we already have—only we haven’t been able to see them clearly yet. And perhaps, just maybe, the prison we think we’re in isn’t the situation, but the perspective we’re holding. Changing the lens through which we view our own lives can be a powerful act of mental and emotional freedom.
This holiday season, let’s give ourselves the gift of presence. Let’s celebrate the lives we are living, with all their imperfections and possibilities. Because in this moment, we are already becoming who we are meant to be.
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