Merry Christmas

I would like to wish those of you who celebrate a very Merry Christmas. May it be full of love, peace, and laughter.

Spending some time on Lanzarote we attended a concert by Christmas Voices. We were not only pampered with Christmas carols, but also got to hear some stories. One stuck to my mind and even though it was written around hundred years ago, it has a great meaning still today. More so, I think, it is quite independent from any religion and much more resonates with a kind and mindful everyday attitude. The only thing that has luckily changed is the use of gender words. Please, think of everyone whenever you read men or man.

Keeping Christmas

Written by Henry van Dyke (1852-1933)

It is a good thing to observe Christmas day. The mere marking of times and seasons, when men agree to stop work and make merry together, is a wise and wholesome custom. It helps one to feel the supremacy of the common life over the individual life. It reminds a man to set his own little watch, now and then, by the great clock of humanity which runs on sun time.

But there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is, keeping Christmas.

Are you willing…

to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you;
to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world;
to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground;
to see that your fellow-men are just as real as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy;
to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life;
to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness?

Are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing…

to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children;
to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old;
to stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough;
to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts;
to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you;
to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you;
to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open?

Are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.