It's That Time of Year

It's nearing Christmas Day around here. Everywhere I go I see signs of Christmas. Trees, lights, signs, for-hire Santas walking down the sidewalks, pictures of kids oogling over their favorite toy ads, and all sorts of other visual reminders of the holiday season.

I look forward to Christmas for a couple reasons. It's to remember the birth of Christ but it also seems to bring families closer together. People give more. People tend to help out a little more. People seem to be just a little nicer than at other times during the year. Two of our kids still believe in Santa.

We watch the old Christmas cartoons I watched as a child. We make cookies on Christmas Eve and put out the reindeer food on the yard, the plate of cookies and milk by the fireplace before bedtime. It just makes things more fun.

And then there are some of the things that pop in my head at this time of year that make me sad, things I don't necessarily want to remember but I do, and they usually come up now. These are things that while sad make me very grateful for what I have around me each and every day.

I see people every day on a specific sidewalk just a couple blocks from where I work begging for money. They have no job. They have no home. They have practically nothing. I occasionally drive by a large shelter downtown and see the crowd milling about aimlessly outside waiting for the next meal, waiting for the next bed to open up so they can go lay down or just stay warm for the night.

How many people have lost a friend of family member throughout the year? They will be spending their first Christmas without that loved one, without that friend. There will be a profound emptiness in the time of families, togetherness, and love. I look at those who are working Christmas Day. I've done it countless times. I've been in foreign countries on Christmas Day and other holidays, spending it with people I work with; no family, no presents, no catching up on family gossip or eating my mom's killer apple pie.

I always think back to Christmas Day 1991 when I was working on an ambulance. Low man on the seniority list, just finished with Paramedic class. A cardiac arrest, a pediatric one, all of 6 months old just brought in to this world to experience her first Christmas. The jokes and happiness we had in the ER that morning cut short by this totally unexpected tragedy. We all worked and worked for seemingly hours doing everything we could to revive this frail little girl. Somehow, by the grace of God, we did. She was transported by helicopter to a children's hospital where she passed 3 days later. Heartbreaking, truly heartbreaking.

I cried that day. I cried because of what had happened, what I witnessed, what we all had done, and what we had achieved on that day, Christmas Day. I think of how that family lives with what happened on that day so many years ago and how their lives would and are forever changed by the events of one day, that day, Christmas Day.

But life goes on. We all do. Lest we forget those who are not here with us anymore. They will always be with us and there will always be the reminder of being with them, even if for just a short period of time. Those who have passed, those who are working, those who have nothing, and those who have everything.

There's still kindness in the world and I see it every day. There's still love in the world and I experience it every day. There will always be the hatred and cruelty that will mar what we see and blur our views, but that will go to the back of the line.

For everyone who is missing someone, for everyone who is not home with their family, for everyone who has nothing, and for everyone who has everything, be glad you have something, yourself. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.