This post is for you........my global friend

Snow. 

I love it. Sure, it's just frozen water, but snowflakes for me are amazing little pieces of art.

So beautifully constructed, each different snowflake a unique tiny piece of "sculpture".

 I guess for me what is also so wonderful about snow is how it can transform any landscape, or 

city-scape, or village, or mountain range, into glistening, sparkling, and enchanted spaces.

Snow, as it falls, transforms sharp and pointy things into rounded and "soft" things.

For many of us, snow is also something we often associate with Christmas celebrations together with family and or friends. 

Some of us are very fortunate and have families and friends we can celebrate Christmas with, but for many, Christmas time is possibly the worst time of the year.

Even if Christmas means little more than a "commercially driven event in favor of those who profit monetary from it" for some of us, those of us who have no families or friends to spend Christmas with can easily feel "left-out" and lonely during the Christmas celebrations.

Whatever Christmas may mean to you or me, traditionally in Western cultures, (probably in other cultures as well) the common sentiment is "love, peace, harmony and goodwill to all mankind".

One definition of goodwill is: benevolence, compassion and good-heartedness, another is: being friendly, helpful, and having an attitude/feelings of cooperation.

Even if one may view Christmas as a merchant marketing ploy, or an excuse for all manners of gluttony and greed, what about the "love, peace, harmony and goodwill to all mankind" part?

What about setting aside a few days out of the whole year to "love, peace, harmony and goodwill to all mankind", couldn't that still be a good idea?

What if for a few days of the year, we were to acknowledge the "glass people" in a spirit of goodwill? "The glass people", as in those people we somehow just don't seem to "see" unless they ask us for money, or talk too loud, or smell, or dress funny, or talk funny, or talk to themselves, or seem drunk, or "high", or strange, or foreign, or scary, or different, or sick, or....etc.etc..

(My son first introduced me to the term "glass people" a few years ago and when I asked him what he meant, he answered: "I call them the "glass people" because nobody seems to see them.")

Small gestures of kindness can have amazing outcomes, so can words of encouragement to someone who seems a bit down, a friendly "hello" can make a huge difference for a person feeling lonely, a phone call/text to someone you have lost touch with can make their day, an offer to assist someone struggling can boost that person's morale, lending a hand to an elderly person carrying a heavy bag can make his/her day, .....a bit of goodwill and compassion, may I suggest, goes a long way.

In my view, "gifts" comes in many shapes and sizes and some of them have nothing to do with money.

Some suggestions of "gifts" that we can all give: a kind word, a listening ear, some quality time, patience, a warm embrace, a strong hand, being present (=being there), an offer to help clean, cook, carry, etc. for someone, an offer to take someone for a walk, an offer of comfort to someone struggling, or.....(insert here your own suggestions)........sometimes just asking a person "can I help?" can be the most precious and generous of gifts we can give.

If you believe in love; be a loving person

if you believe in peace; be a peaceful person

if you believe in harmony; be a harmonious person

if you believe in goodwill; be a good-hearted, compassionate person

"It was only a sunny smile,
And little it cost in the giving;
But it scattered the night
like the morning light,
                         And made the day worth living." (Unknown poet)

Christmas is just around the corner, and fortunate as I am, I have a family to spend it with...

but if you don't have one...let me first thank you for visiting this blog,

then wish you much  love, peace, harmony and goodwill.