Passing on something for the holiday and for everyday...

Please Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner,help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

Remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested  young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

Remind us, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions
that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

Keep in mind  that the old couple walking annoyingly  slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping  progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report
she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.

Appreciate all of the gifts that we have,
the greatest of which is love.
It is not enough to share that love with those
we hold dear.
Open our hearts not to just those who are
close to us, but to all.

Well, with the exception of the "bum" comments, I thought that was beautiful and something we ought to remember all year long. Not just the last few weeks of December. And just to set the record straight, many homeless people aren't addicted to anything at all. Many have mental disorders, have been to war and lost certain things that make them unable to work and bottom line, we live in a society that will write a check every month for families we'll never see or know in a far away land, but we won't so much as look one of our own less fortunate in the eye. THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE.

Megan