Dickens, Being Merry and 16 days to Christmas

This is the season when we feel content if not entirely happy, we are more apt to socialize and from what the media tells us, we are in a much more generous frame of mind...Aah!
To tell the truth, I thought being generous was a feeling most of us experience throughout the calendar year...hum... But then again, it is true most people will shop for hours for the "right" gift and will less likely balk at the actual price tag...And most of us will certainly reach out in our pockets for that loose change when hearing the Salvation bell ringer upon exiting a store...

Still, being generous and remembering our fellow humans (and let's not forget our animal friends!) is not something seasonal. This very special feeling we experience during the Holiday Season for the birth of Christ should be in fact felt throughout the year. No matter how busy we are, no matter the stress we experience or the financial hardship we endure, being generous should not be tantamount to climbing mountains but rather cresting hills...A smile here and there, a helping hand where needed, a kind gesture towards a stranger, just because...
This is what He meant for us... Giving of ourselves where we can and as often as we can...

Dickens wrote of unbelievable hardships, yet we feel in his stories the whole of human triumph over adversity despite the many ups and downs... I like to read Charles Dickens stories to remind myself that life is by far better for me than most!

And so each year I immerse myself in the Christmas Carols, Oliver Twist, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, and such... Writings such as his, many written in his Broadstairs home, reflects the dark as well as the merry side of Victorian life. And as a reader I can immerse myself in the best of his work, feel all the emotions he so well described and all from the comfort of my home...A most wonderful gift!

16 Days to Christmas...I finally finished my knitting for Heavenly Angels in Need for this year, sent my parcels to Marines and National Guards overseas - AnySoldier.com and
SoldierAngels.com - and gave my husband a USPS receipt for a total of $96 (outch!) for the shipping of 9 Christmas boxes...I just hope the warm feeling of this Season will envelop him just as much as it does me!

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!
(Charles Dickens)