Christmas, Courage and Kindness

Christmas is here again with all its consumerist excitement.
It's tempting to throw yourself into it.
To believe for just a few short weeks that the world is simply full of joy and love and lots of mulled wine.
It's tempting to look at the excited faces of the Father-Christmas-believing children and say "Santa Claus is coming to town."
It's tempting to sit at your work Christmas dinner and soak up the alcohol-drenched 'Joy-to-the-world," ambiance.
It's tempting to join in with the familiar carols, the tunes  that take us back to a a better time.
"Peace on Earth and mercy mild."

Whatever  happened to that?

While all around us the storm clouds are gathering, we hang on to our glitter-filled, bauble- shaped dreams and hope that by hanging them on our Christmas trees, the world become a better place.

We have to keep hoping, right?

last night I helped at a Christmas party for students with special needs coming home for Christmas. 
 It was organised by our daughter, Mia.  
She found the hall, the DJ, sent persuasive texts to friends, siblings ( and her brother Joss) and together they created a magical night.
There were traumas, there was dancing, there was much flirting.
Like any home coming friendships had to be retrieved and re-shaped and re-kindled.
And they were.

And at the end of the evening, one of the mums came up to Mia and said:
"Thank you, you have done something amazing tonight because it was done  out of pure kindness."
That meant a lot to Mia.
But I think it might have meant even more to me.
Like a wake-up call, I felt those words send a shock through my body and 
wrap themselves around my heart.
" Pure kindness," - how often are our actions shaped by that?
How often do we do something that is purely kind?

In the crazy, frightening, divisive world, I think we might have forgotten how to do it.
And yet it takes so little..
Pure kindness doesn't need a hall or a DJ or a sound system.
It doesn't come with  a price tag or a money-back guarantee or a present receipt.
You should expect no thank you letter.
it's not tangible or concrete.

But all the same, I think it might be the greatest gift we can give..

It's a gift that can take courage and thought and time.
It's a gift is easy to forget about or hide right at the bottom of the pile.
It's a gift that is impossible to wrap.
But it's not what it looks like that matters.
In the end, pure kindness is the light that can guide us through these zig-zagging days of distrust and darkness because no one can stop us from making it shine.

I think it might be our most powerful weapon in these days of growing hate and injustice.
i say, this year, let's give pure kindness a go.
.
So Happy Christmas/ Holidays/ Days off work - and here's to next year being everything that this year wasn't.

Here's to 2017 being the year we find the courage to be truly kind.