Well, we made it through the holidays! I was going to write about dealing with holiday stress, but I guess I was too stressed and too busy to write about it! Hope you weren’t expecting it. Like the holidays, we tend to have high expectations of “the most wonderful time of the year” that often fall short.

To tell you the truth, after the tragedy at a school in Connecticut on Dec. 14th, I had a hard time knowing what to write. It left me stunned, not knowing what to do. Hard to talk about “holiday stress” when such a huge tragedy strikes. All I could think about was the deep pain and sorrow the parents and children and teachers of Newtown were experiencing. I did post helpful tips for parents on Facebook and I wrote a letter to the President. What did you do? How will we help people grieve this huge loss? How will we prevent this from happening again? It is complicated with no easy quick solutions.

I received an email from a young father (and bully expert) who has two young boys, ages 3 and 5. His name is Brooks Gibbs and he sent me a very moving video about what he’s doing to help the people of Newtown, where this tragedy occurred.

Please watch this short documentary that tells the story of the work he is doing. It’s very inspiring and gives you hope that there is a way through all this grief and sorrow if we’re willing to talk about it.
http://NewtownSpeaks.org

I will be leading a free workshop at the YMCA this month about “Dealing with Bullying: How to Empower the Victim”.  It’s a different approach that has been very effective. If you’d like more information or would like to attend, please click on “Upcoming Workshops” or email me at Lmartenspeaks@yahoo.com

I hope your New Year will be full of enough joy to keep you happy and enough challenges to keep you humble and make you strong.

Remember as Ghandi once said: “BE the change you wish to see in the world” and this especially applies to parents (BE the example for your kids to follow). Tall order I know, and worth the effort. Maybe the best example is that we are willing to keep learning, especially from our mistakes.

Happy New Year! Be gentle to yourself.