Are You Willing to Keep Christmas?
Are you willing…
...to forget what you have done for other people,
and to remember what other people have done for you.
...to ignore what the world owes you,
and to think what you owe the world.
...to put your rights in the background,
and your duties in the middle distance,
and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground.
Are you willing...
...to see that men and women are just as real as you are,
and try to look behind their faces to their hearts.
...to own up to the fact that probably the only good reason for your existence is
not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life.
...to close your book of complaints, and look around you
for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness.
Are you willing...
…to stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little children.
…to remember the weakness and loneliness of people growing old.
...to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear in their hearts,
and to try to understand what those who live with you really want,
without waiting for them to tell you.
Are you willing...
...to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke,
and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you.
...to make a grave for your ugly thoughts,
and a garden with an open gate for your kind feelings.
...to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world,
stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death.
And if you can keep it for a day,
why not always?
