“So this is Christmas

And what have you done
Another year over
A new one just begun.”

John Lennon

“Hey, Happy Holidays!  How ya doing?”

“Good.”

Really?

How are you doing?

How’s your health?  How’s your loved ones?  How’s your pet?  How are you doing with your bills?  Your responsibilities?  The stresses of life?  How are you handling things?  How’s the balancing act going?  Is it balancing?  Is it an act?

How are you doing?

It’s wonderful to get together with family over the holidays when we have the chance to explore these questions together and answer them honestly with people who care.  That’s assuming we have family and/or people who care.  When everyone is Fa-La-La-La-La-ing, it’s a bummer to be the one off key.

When things aren’t going as planned it’s easier to just go along pretending to others that everything’s fine.  Hey, it’s even Good – La-La-La -LA!  Yet it’s only a matter of time before the song ends, company leaves, and the cracks in the china begin to appear.  The La-La’s become Loo -Loose.

“Bah-Humbug,” you mutter under your breath.  Maybe you do, maybe you don’t.  But one thing’s certain, this year and every single year ever, it’s not a “Ho-Ho” Christmas for all.

And so, this is Christmas.  A time to look up at the stars and realize it only takes the inspiration of one bright light to lead to magnificence.  Maybe that bright light is in you ready to shine forth and see the great hope in our very midst – even if it’s in the midst of an old tattered barn with straw as a bed.

Next time you ask someone, “How ya’ doing?”  Take a pause for the response.  Listen.  Really listen – perhaps checking in twice.  Maybe, just maybe, you’ll get an honest answer one of these days.  And maybe, just maybe, your holiday along with someone else’s will be all the happier for it.

“To the world you might be just one person,

but to one person you might just be the world.”