Last night I was sitting in my chair in the living room, looking at the fire I had started in the fireplace, while admiring our beautiful Christmas tree with its colorful bulbs, and an unruly number of ornaments collected over a lifetime. With my recently grown beard being more white than red, I probably could have posed as a Norman Rockwell Santa Claus, resting before the Big Night.
And yet, instead of dwelling on all things to be thankful for, my mind was being dragged down by “stupid stuff”. You know, gifts I still wanted to buy; things I wanted to do at work before the New Year; phone calls I needed to make. Stupid stuff.
I flipped on the TV and tuned into the President of Ukraine. He had just begun a speech to a joint session of Congress. As I listened to him speak, my world shrunk around me. I felt myself embarrassed about the trivial nonsense that only a few minutes before had cluttered my mind. President Zelensky spoke so humbly and so eloquently about the atrocities brought upon his people for no reason. He spoke about parents losing their children; soldiers returning home maimed; no heat or hot water; nor electricity or food. It was as if I was being spoken to by one of Dickens’ghosts.
My father once told me that “you do not know how well you have it until you walk in another man’s shoes.” How true.
So, I hope that this holiday season we take a moment and step back from the holiday chaos, and focus on what is truly important in life and that we too often take for granted.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY CHANUKAH, HAPPY KWANZA, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL, AND MAY GOD BLESS THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE AND THEIR LEADERS!
Keith J. Ahlers
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