the spirit of Christmas

been feeling sort of shy over here lately, but i want to put this here so i can remember.

my mom found this essay on an ancient news-clipping in my sweet grandma's Bible. i think it is a lovely reminder and reflects my grandma's unselfish life.

Excerpt from “The Spirit of Christmas” by Henry Van Dyke 1905

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, put your rights in the background, your duties in the middle distance and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the fore ground,see that your fellow men are just as real as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy;
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 do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

ARE YOU WILLING TO STOOP DOWN and consider the needs and desires of little children; remember the weakness and loneliness of those who are growing old;
to stop asking how much your friends love you and ask yourself whether you love them enough, to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts;

to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really want without waiting for them to tell you;

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 for your kindly feelings with the gate open;

Are you willing to do these things even for a day?
Then you can keep Christmas

ARE YOU WILLING TO BELIEVE that love is the strongest thing in the world – stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death– and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the eternal love?

Then you can keep Christmas.
And if you can keep it for a day, why not always. But you can never keep it alone

From “The Sprit of Christmas“ 1905, Henry Van Dyke.