Pattye Benson

Community Matters

Christmas 2013

Believe in the spirit of the holiday season!

Tomorrow we celebrate Christmas. Gifts will be opened, stockings unstuffed, and laughter will fill the day for families all across the area. We celebrate family, friends and love with gatherings filled with joy. It’s a time to celebrate, to reflect on our blessings, and to look to the future with anticipation and confidence.

Looking back on a year filled with ups and downs, highs and lows … this holiday season gives us a reason to hope. Like everyone, I hope for a better tomorrow, for peace on earth, and that those who are lost can find their way. This is the time of year where such hopes and dreams are more than just sentiments; they are goals of all mankind.

Each of us may have different traditions with different memories and different stories of the celebration of our holidays, but our wishes are all the same. Whether one is Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or any other faith is not the important lesson of the season. Believing in the spirit of the holiday season – whatever or whomever you choose or choose not to believe in – is what makes this a special time of the year.

No matter whom you might worship, or not worship, or by what creed, faith, or practice you choose to acknowledge isn’t what is important. It is the empathy to understand there are many who are not as lucky to have a warm bed, a roof over their head, or food on their table. To understand and to give to those of us less fortunate is what makes us human and this time of the year special, not whether you say the words “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”.

The holiday season should remind us that it is not about words but rather about caring about others. It is the charity in our hearts to consider others, to offer forgiveness and acceptance, to volunteer our time, to donate and to try to make this world a better place, each in our own special way.

It really isn’t whether you say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings but rather it is about believing in the spirit of the season.

My best wishes this holiday season.

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