Be happy - Celebrating Christmas

BE KIND, be generous, be calm, be thoughtful, be loving, be warm, be welcoming, be patient, be helpful, be attentive, be open, be modest, be a good friend and a good neighbour, be good a father and be a good mother, be a good son or a good daughter, be a good brother or a good sister; be, if you can at all, happy and content because Christmas comes but once a year and each one should be memorable. Proving that virtue is its own reward.

That may not always be possible because the day-to-day can cloud even our culture’s great winter festival. Some of us may not enjoy it because we are not with those we love or maybe those we love have celebrated their last Christmas. Others may feel they are on the outside looking in because they do not have the money to celebrate as they might wish. Others still may feel swamped by a bonhomie that surrounds them but leaves them untouched. Being genuinely, robustly happy is always one of the great human challenges but these next few days are an opportunity to achieve that vaunted, illusive state. A very happy Christmas to you all.