Ready to Keep Christmas

“Are you willing to stoop down and consider

the needs and desires of little children;

to remember the weaknesses and loneliness

of people who are growing old;

to stop asking how much your friends love you,

and to ask yourself if you love them enough;

to bear in mind the things that other people

have to bear on their hearts;

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 for a day?

 Then you are ready to keep Christmas!” 

~Henry van Dyke