Joy to the world

(Reposted from December 23, 2022)

There’s something I love about the Christmas week. I love that work is usually lighter and easier going. (It wasn’t this week for me, but at least, now I get to regroup and get my head back on straight.) Coworkers are willing to help; nobody takes themselves too seriously. 

People you meet shopping or going about errands are in a good mood. Yes, there are exceptions, but people, for the most part, are the best versions of themselves. They’re excited for the holiday. Heck, the driver in front of me paid for my coffee the other day. And if they’re not happier, then at least, I’m happier and dealing better with life’s twists and turns. 

I love the anticipation and excitement that people have and the feeling that good things are coming. And when I hear a bell ring, I think of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life and am reminded of the phrase that “every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.” I don’t know about that, but it’s still a nice thought anyway. Finally, I love the togetherness of the season, Christ’s birth, and the message of hope. 

Hope is always a good thing. 

“I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant 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. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good; and I say, God bless it!” –Nephew Fred, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.