MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

The following is the text from a letter/email I sent out to all my friends, family & colleagues, wishing them a MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS in 2008. I thought it appropriate to share a bit of wisdom with them people bequethed upon me by my in-home chaplain, who inspired me just a few days ago with a genuinely thoughtful & compassionate response to my concerns of lost gifts & callings, in light of my disfiguring facial injury. I want to share this blessing with all the followers of my blog, just as I shared it the other people in my life. I have attached Holiday Peanuts® Strips that I found on Comics.com and that I found pretty damn adorable and appropriate for passing along the spirit of the holidays, saying "MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!" I hope that these words resound for you all! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Hello to All My Friends, Family & Colleagues,

This is Matthew Blanchard writing to wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I hope that the spirit of the Holiday Season blesses you with good tidings, great bliss and much merriment after a year that for some may have been trying & tumultuous, or otherwise, full of peace and good fortune for others.

For me, 2008 has been marked by my immense struggle to grapple with the stupendous psychological & physiological affects of my tragic, disfiguring facial injury & AIDS-related illnesses. By years end though, I have grown comfortable with my continuing cycles of reconstructions & recovery, having spent a good portion of the year tending to my wounds (both emotional & physical). I have spent much of the year alone and isolated, either in the hospital or recovering in immense boredom & near total seclusion in the Tenderloin studio apartment I'm happy to have as a home. This year of reclusion, with me afraid to face the world with my monstrous new face unveiled and public, has given me time while to drudge through emotional sufferance, also to begin an extended process of rumination on and examination of life and it's myriad of complex meanings & pathways to serenity & salvation.

I am happily ending the year with a positive perspective set on a near future of further healing and transformation but also on a new future of self-discovery. My compassionate, devout chaplain who visits me in my home every week to offer his sermon & anointing, blessed me with a piece of true Enlightenment on this past Monday afternoon. He was discussing one's God-given gifts & the pathways we are lead on toward salvation in Christ though contributions to and caring of our fellow man.

Feeling that I have lost the opportunity to continue following the paths that God has set me on throughout my life thus far (up until my injury & disfigurement), because of my injury & disfigurement, I asked him, meekly and melancholic:

What do we do when our gifts are taken away from us and our paths to salvation are interrupted? Does God then assign us new gifts & callings that we are meant to discover once again after moments of tragic, unexpected change in life, or do we spend the rest of our entire life unfulfilled & unable to pursue our dreams & to reach our full potential as children of God?

He responded by saying that he believes that God gives us all many gifts and potential paths to glory under his grs. When one gift is lost or taken away from us in a moment of tragic change, we are simply meant to continue trekking forward with our minds set on discovering and being fulfilled through our other God-given gifts & callings that our past gifts remain ever prevalent and not lost in our lives, as they are meant to inform and inspire our new callings through the lessons we have learned & the talents we have gained through them.

This piece of wisdom that my priest offered me that day truly touched my heart and gave me hope that one day soon I will be able to find new gifts and new pathways, new connections, new relationships & new experiences that will help me continue in my recovery, toward Enlightenment & salvation, so that I am once again able to make beautiful contributions to this world & to accomplish great things, despite (or in light of) my recent transformation. I was so moved by this wisdom that I wanted to share it with all of you in the Holiday blessing. I hope that you are equally touched by this concept as I was and that it helps you along your own individual pathways toward redemption, discovery, contribution & accomplishment during this coming year and after.

May God bless us all with his enduring, perfect love! May we all be blessed with good tidings, joy and merriment & be touched by the compassionate giving of others this Holiday Season; lest we forget that we are meant to give such blessings in return as well. MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! Blessings to you all! May 2009 be a year of contentment, accomplishment, successes, peace & love for us all. God Speed! Until sometime soon...

In hopes of happiness for all this Holiday Season...
Fondly & Forever,

— Matt(e)o | QHereKidSF