I would like to wish all celebrants Selamat Hari Raya and happy holidays.
Hari Raya will fall on 1st and 2nd October 08. Starting from tomorrow, we will see KL folks going back to their hometowns to spend time with their families. Selamat Hari Raya to everyone and enjoy the time with the family 🙂
But I want to write an article for those who are spending this long holidays alone. Most of the time, this group of people are often forgotten…
Spending the Festive Session Alone
Festive sessions can be especially painful for those who are alone without family members- like those who are single and living alone and their parents are no longer around- each time a festive holiday comes, it is especially hard to bear.
What one can do during this festive session (taken from what I known have been done by others):
1. Go for a holiday overseas- alone. OK, it may be too late to plan for Raya but the next biggie is Christmas. I know a few people who make it a point to go for vacations alone during the festival even though they celebrate it- just to escape relatives asking her, ‘why are you still single?’
2. Get to know friends who are on the same boat and chose the day to spend time together- can be just gathering together for pot luck and watching DVDs
3. Rent tonnes of DVD and books with humor, stay snuggled at home to read/watch them. OK, I generally don’t encourage a person to watch too much TV- but during this time, movies or sitcom series can greatly distract a person away from that lonely feeling
4. Prepare a relaxing and soothing bath with candles and aromatherapy oils. Or do whatever that you feel is pampering yourself
5. Reach out to help others- volunteer to help in a shelter or distribute little tokens of gifts in hospitals. It is sad that a lot of patients don’t get to go home during the festive holidays (maybe because their family members ‘forgotten bout them’ or the nature of their illness requires hospital stay).
6. Learn a new skill or spend time in a hobby that previously one had no time to do like crafting, painting, writing, etc
7. If you love the internet, you can go round visiting blogs or sites that you like – and drop comments on it. You can find response from many others.
8. You may want to stay at home if you are alone – and have the fridge stocked up with food that you can cook or prepare.
You can spend time with yourself and not feel lonely. But you can be in a group of laughing people and yet had never felt more alone. To learn to enjoy one’s own company, one will be contented wherever one goes. Many people are afraid of loneliness – they cannot bear to be seen in public alone.
There is nothing wrong with going for shopping alone or eating in a restaurant alone.
It is this fear of feeling as if they’re being ‘pitied’ that led lots of people to strive to belong in a clique or a group. If we do not learn to stand firm and true to our principles, even if it means we have to be alone- then we will forever be like a piece of plywood, drifting wherever the sea waves take them. Why can’t we be like a banyan tree – whose roots reaches deeply and firmly onto the ground- even though wind, rains and floods come, they could not topple the banyan tree.
