For some, the Christmas season starts with Thanksgiving Day Christmas Parades, shopping the day after Thanksgiving and selecting the perfect Christmas Tree. It may include making Christmas decorations, making Christmas cookies, hearing Little Drummer Boy for the first time this season or giving at Christmas time by working in a soup kitchen or contributing to a charity.
I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. ~Charles Dickens
I'm with Charles, but why limit ourselves to the holiday season? Why should we all not strive to maintain the Christmas Spirit throughout the year?
The Christmas Spirit begins at home. We have our parents, our children, and our brothers and sisters - who perhaps irritate us the most - and we begin our practice of loving-kindness and compassion with them. Then gradually we extend our compassion out into our greater community, our country, neighboring countries, and finally, the world. The drunk who just got on the bus, the teller at the bank, the janitor at work, my eighth-grade girlfriend, the babysitter when I was a kid, the soldier in Iraq, the president of the United States and yes, even those who seek to do us harm. I believe this is the real Spirit and Message of Christmas.
Let us all open our hearts and minds this season and throughout the coming year. Let us show compassion, turn the other cheek, volunteer, give love, be slow to judge and lend a hand to someone in need. We may be surprised how the Christmas Spirit returns the favor.
Thank you all for your friendship, business, love and support this year and years to come. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
