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I heard this Darlene Love song recently and resented it at first, since I'm always physically alone every Christmas. But it hit me. It's possible to make it a DS PTSD Christmas song, if you please.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFE4TN33Dfs
The lyrics start:
"The cold wind is blowin' and the streets are getting dark
I'm writing you a LETTER and I don't know where to start
The bells will be ringing Saint John the Divine
I get a little lonely every year around this time"
Substitute "DS PTSD post" for "LETTER" there and Darlene's speaking for some of us there, if you please.
And then there's the chorus:
"I've got to know
Where do lonely hearts go?
Because nobody ought to be all alone on Christmas"
Well, speaking for me, they go to DS PTSD, that's what I know. Speaking for myself, at least, this lonely heart will gratefully be here again. Because here I won't be all alone on Christmas after all, but with my DS PTSD family of choice that keeps me safe and cares for me. Truly.
By the way, Darlene Love's personal story is inspiring in a DS PTSD kind of way, too. She was one of Phil Spector's favorite singers in the 1960s, but her career went south on her to the point that she worked as a MAID cleaning houses in Beverly Hills. Bruce Springsteen's guitarist Steve Van Zandt helped her make a comeback.
I'm happy about that, because as my Christmas present to myself I'm going to a little bar 2hours away to see one of Springsteen and Van Zandt's old high school friends on Dec 27th, Southside Johnny with his band the Asbury Jukes.
Plus, on Feb 23rd, I'll be seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert. I'll have to work extra on weekends to pay for it, but I'm so happy. It's another Christmas present to myself, and a bucket list thing for me. His record "Darkness on the Edge of Town" got me through the first time my PTSD symptoms came on me and almost buried me.
I didn't have a therapist, or a support group online or offline back then, and that record let me know I wasn't the only one who knew the "darkness on the edge." When I first heard it, I literally listened to over and over locked in my room at my parents' house. Sadly, they were my lifelong abusers, and it would take a therapist to help be estrange myself from them for my safety. The abuse was most intense at Christmas, always sending me closest to the edge in the darkness of their house.
But I wasn't all alone. These lyrics from the song spoke right to me:
"Everybody's got a secret sonny
Yeah, something that they just can't face
Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it
They carry it with them every step that they take
Till one day they just cut it loose
Cut it loose or let it drag 'em down
Where no one asks any questions
Looks too long in your face
In the darkness on the edge of town
In the darkness on the edge of town"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPiKexGVfNk
Knowing that saved me from the "edge" and letting it "drag" all the way down until I got to a therapist and a support group. Like this wonderful support group here at DS PTSD I have now.
Merry Christmas, everybody. You're a great gift to me, all year round.
So please:
Is there any song that helps you with your PTSD at Christmas time? Would you mind posting a youtube link to it and saying a little about how it does the trick for you? Thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFE4TN33Dfs
The lyrics start:
"The cold wind is blowin' and the streets are getting dark
I'm writing you a LETTER and I don't know where to start
The bells will be ringing Saint John the Divine
I get a little lonely every year around this time"
Substitute "DS PTSD post" for "LETTER" there and Darlene's speaking for some of us there, if you please.
And then there's the chorus:
"I've got to know
Where do lonely hearts go?
Because nobody ought to be all alone on Christmas"
Well, speaking for me, they go to DS PTSD, that's what I know. Speaking for myself, at least, this lonely heart will gratefully be here again. Because here I won't be all alone on Christmas after all, but with my DS PTSD family of choice that keeps me safe and cares for me. Truly.
By the way, Darlene Love's personal story is inspiring in a DS PTSD kind of way, too. She was one of Phil Spector's favorite singers in the 1960s, but her career went south on her to the point that she worked as a MAID cleaning houses in Beverly Hills. Bruce Springsteen's guitarist Steve Van Zandt helped her make a comeback.
I'm happy about that, because as my Christmas present to myself I'm going to a little bar 2hours away to see one of Springsteen and Van Zandt's old high school friends on Dec 27th, Southside Johnny with his band the Asbury Jukes.
Plus, on Feb 23rd, I'll be seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert. I'll have to work extra on weekends to pay for it, but I'm so happy. It's another Christmas present to myself, and a bucket list thing for me. His record "Darkness on the Edge of Town" got me through the first time my PTSD symptoms came on me and almost buried me.
I didn't have a therapist, or a support group online or offline back then, and that record let me know I wasn't the only one who knew the "darkness on the edge." When I first heard it, I literally listened to over and over locked in my room at my parents' house. Sadly, they were my lifelong abusers, and it would take a therapist to help be estrange myself from them for my safety. The abuse was most intense at Christmas, always sending me closest to the edge in the darkness of their house.
But I wasn't all alone. These lyrics from the song spoke right to me:
"Everybody's got a secret sonny
Yeah, something that they just can't face
Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it
They carry it with them every step that they take
Till one day they just cut it loose
Cut it loose or let it drag 'em down
Where no one asks any questions
Looks too long in your face
In the darkness on the edge of town
In the darkness on the edge of town"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPiKexGVfNk
Knowing that saved me from the "edge" and letting it "drag" all the way down until I got to a therapist and a support group. Like this wonderful support group here at DS PTSD I have now.
Merry Christmas, everybody. You're a great gift to me, all year round.
So please:
Is there any song that helps you with your PTSD at Christmas time? Would you mind posting a youtube link to it and saying a little about how it does the trick for you? Thanks.
Louis Armstrong what a wonderful world
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3yCcXgbKrE
I see trees of green, red roses, too,
I see them bloom, for me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue, and clouds of white,
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world.
The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky,
Are also on the faces of people going by.
I see friends shaking hands, sayin', "How do you do?"
They're really sayin', "I love you."
I hear babies cryin'. I watch them grow.
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
http://faithtap.com/2089/pentatonix-mary-did-you-know/
JP, LOL, I know, the links don't work for me sometimes, either. *headdesk* Thanks for the share on the lyrics, I didn't have them, so I was sorta la-lal-hum-mumbling a few lines.
Andrea Bocelli.
This is my mom's favorite hymn, in Latin, and she sang it soloist as a young woman in her church choir. Good memories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syf_TZI7s9o
jp, wow, that rendition of Mary Did You Know? was sweet!
Thanks, y'all, and have a good Christmas Eve!
I heard that as a girl in the midst of all that was going on it gave me hope and the desire to look and appreciate the little things I could find.