Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Feliz Navidad, Good Cheer. ...
It's Christmas, and our gift is sentimental memory, awesome faith and a new day.
Sure we get caught up in the retail rush and frantic scheduling, but there's no denying that in part we do the crazy stuff for the few precious moments of peace and love we always hope to find at Christmas.
Don't we always hope for peace? Yes, most of us do. Does good will have to have a season? Certainly not.
The one thing Christmas gives us is an understanding, even if for just a few moments, that when we genuinely love and hold one another in our hearts, simply saying it is far more eloquent than any other gift that we could give or receive.
We love this concept even when we don't always understand how to act it on it. This is why we love that cranky old Scrooge who embodies our hateful, shattered world, but in one night is made whole by realization, repentance and love.
All any of us really want for Christmas, after all, is to love and know we are loved, and to imagine a world that lives up to the purity of love and good will -- a world that accepts Santas of any color, a world that understands the faith we harbor in our hearts is neither superior nor inferior.
Just as it is our choice what we buy or reject in those brightly lit stores with jingle bell songs, so is it our freedom and choice what faith we choose, what holiday tradition we observe and how we share it.
That's why Christmas is so very special. It is really about more than our imaginings, prophets and saviors.
Christmas is about a spirit -- a feeling of oneness and reverence; a time of family, friends, laughter and good food; an opportunity to reflect, find redemption, worship, seek solace, love and feel loved.
Christmas is what we make it, based on our beliefs and based on our hearts. It is a promise we can make with ourselves for today and tomorrow and a new day after that.
Peace on earth, good will to all.
The message may be divine, but it requires our own humanity and human effort. Every day.