This year more than any other,
We find ourselves asking what to do for the holidays,
But it’s more than just, “Your house or ours?”
Loss, loss, loss.
Loss of life.
Loss of liberty.
Loss of property.
We’re battered and burdened.
Nature attacks us through plague and convulsion,
And we attack each other through word and deed,
Spurned on by stresses and hardships,
We’ve personally never faced before.
Where do we go from here,
When the world we’ve known is all but gone?
We should be all the merrier for it.

I’ll give a gift to you.
You’ll give a gift to someone else.
Time or trinkets exchanged,
Acts great or small,
And on and around it goes.
At the heart of the pageantry lies selflessness.
Remarkably so, no matter where you stand,
No matter where you live,
No matter who you are,
We’ve all shared a burden.
We are, together, the world,
And in some part we can all relate.
We can all find sympathy,
Regardless of our differences.
Take down your defenses,
And reach out to your neighbor.
The first with the courage to be vulnerable,
Will be the first to find comfort in the day,
For living is a small matter compared to loving.

Merry Christmas,
And Happy Holidays.