My Christmas Wish: Peace

I didn’t know what you wanted for Christmas, so I decided to regift y’all what I gave you last year … a repostage of my annual holiday wish. It still holds true, for me:

Christmas means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

It's a religious holiday.
It's a shopping holiday.
It's a day for those who shop religiously.
I'm not a big fan of either.

For me, Christmas is a day to spend with those you hold most dear in your heart. And that’s Carlos and my family. Of course, the family is mostly on the Left Coast and I'm over here on the right, so Christmas is me and Carlos, and Ozzo, Tuxedo, Max Goldberg, and Consuelo Roca Jones—all our furry kids. It's a day of relaxation and togetherness; reflection and laughter; of a good dinner cooked and shared by the two of us. It's not a day for What did you get? or for thinking How could I have spent so much? It's a day for How lucky am I?

How lucky indeed.

Christmas is more than a celebration; it's a connection we all can share regardless of faith, if we look at it as a day of Peace. A day to relax; to forgive, if not forget. To be at Peace. Every year I get the same question from friends and strangers alike: What are you getting for Christmas? Or  What do you want for Christmas? And I always say, What I get is a lovely day. What I want—and I ask for it every year—is Peace on Earth.

So here's to Peace on Earth, and the little parts that each of us plays in creating our own peace. To make amends to those we may have slighted in the past year; to those who may have slighted us. To talk with the people we love just because we love them. To be nice.

Just to be nice. There's a concept.

Maybe if we all took a moment to think about how we'd like to be treated, we would find ourselves treating others the same way. It's a small step, but an important one. A Please here, and a Thank You there. You're Welcome is good, too, though My pleasure, is better. Hold a door open for someone; let someone with fewer packages get in line ahead of you. Lay off the horn. Don't speed. Smile. Be nice.

Be at Peace.
Merry Christmas world.
Happy Hanukkah.
Happy Kwanzaa.
Merry Festivus.
Happy Holidays.
Peace.

And so that's my wish for you and yours. Health. Happiness. Love. Peace. And, while I've said it over and over again, that I have my personal spiritual beliefs and they do not follow the teachings of any organized religion, every Christmas, no song makes me feel more peaceful, more happy, more at ease, more hopeful than this one.

And so, I'll end with O Holy Night, not because I am a religious man, but because I am a hopeful man, …

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks a new glorious morn

…a peaceful man, a contented man. And no one, for me, sings it better than my girl, JHud … Jennifer Hudson.