Make the Seasons Accessible

Thanks to Rev. YaNi Davis for writing this beautiful guide for safe(r) household, family, and congregational gatherings this holiday season. What a Great Idea!

Rev. YaNi Davis writes, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year for most. At the same time, others are caught in a wintery mix of emotions, while navigating our greatest traumas and fears.” She then offers a guideline for making family, household, and potentially even congregational gatherings more accessible to people of different physical and emotional needs.

Her list of suggestions include:

  1. Embracing autonomy for personal safety and rejecting gaslighting.
  2. Taking courage in normally disempowering situations.
  3. Disallow abuse while viewing others with a lens of grace.
  4. Take a break: give yourself (and others) space to breathe.

The suggestions are simple and obvious, but reading them – or even discussing them as a small group, play-acting with an intergenerational group, sharing them with families, and/or posting them in gathering spaces – may make for a more comfortable and enjoyable Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Seasons.

Read Rev. Davis’ full post here.