This time of year—when color, light, and warmth have faded from the natural world—is the perfect time for us to create our own. And we do! We know the antidote to spirits grown worn and weary. If it momentarily escapes us, we soon rediscover it in the eyes of a child or someone in love. Turn up the lights, turn on the music, and let that hidden knowingness deep within remind us once again that there is good reason to be festive.

Come the darkest night, though our hearts be sore and tattered, if we do not harden them against feeling, we find something else stirs inside us too. Could that be why man, of all the creatures, heralds coming happiness before its arrival? We know that chill, bleak days are numbered. We are made for better things so we go make things better.

The magic of simple enchantments like snowmen and starlit nights arise in sharing. After the laughter, the feasting and song—after the expressions of care and goodwill—we are sufficiently heartened to deal with everything else—together. Give your heart its song—find a child, fall in love, follow your bliss. It all makes good on hope and hope looks good on you!

 

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson