My Christmas Wish

     The Christmas season is a time when many become mindful of others, but why does it only happen during the holiday season.  You hear many stories this time a year about strangers helping strangers, paying it forward in some way, some are small gestures and others are big but it's not the size of the gesture it's the fact that people make the effort.

     My wish for this Christmas is that we make the effort to carry over this Christmas spirit to the rest of the year.  Being a rational person I know that we cannot expect people to be in the Christmas spirit 12 months a year but maybe we can start small by changing a few things we do.

I have just three things in mind:

First, try looking at life through the eyes of a 4 or 5 year olds when their minds are open to the world.  They are curious, questioning everything but they don't rush to judgment of others.  Everything seems to be a new exciting experience to be enjoyed.

Second, think before you act.  It seems like many times people just meander through life without much thought given to the impact of their actions on others.  What a different world it would be if we took a little extra time to consider others before we made a thoughtless decision.

Third, promote understanding without ignoring justice.  This is probably the hardest to do.  The news is filled with stories about people and their problems and it always seems as if it is slanted one direction or the other which makes it hard to be understanding of some situations.  It can be hard to separate your personal beliefs from influencing your opinion about a hot news topic but it's worth the effort.  In any case justice cannot be ignored even though it may be opposite to your opinion.

     We could do these things all year around, at least make an effort.  You may want to pick your own ways to bring Christmas spirit to the rest of the year, that’s great.  All we really want to do is “Strive to make everyday a little better than the day before”. 

     Hey, we're not shooting for perfection here just some improvement, which I think we all can agree is needed.

Have a wonderful Holiday and a successful year!