One gift at at time.

I had never been so inadequately prepared for the season. No tree is even purchased and only a few items decorate small corners of my house. No gifts had been wrapped for anyone from me.  
I had somehow raced through the months of October and November, and I had not stopped. 

 Great thought visited me throughout the day while I was working and I felt the urgent need to put it down. I will remind myself of this next year if I feel the same about how ready or not ready I feel. 

Christmas season offers so many beautiful ways that we can celebrate the joy and the true gift that this event represents. 

One look around, I see friends spending this busy weekend at NIH getting tests and check ups for life-long illness, others battling cancer, someone nearing the end of their life, many simply hanging on to their fragile lives caused by the political turmoil, and others grieving the recent losses that shuttered their dreams for next spring. My heart breaks for those who grieve. 

Then another look around, I see fantastic colleagues to work with not only here literally but all over the world,  more than enough equipment and supplies to help us care for the sick babies, and I even have a warm bed in my call room tonight. I also see so many committed colleagues who will be covering the holiday shifts so that the babies and their families are comforted. Yes, some other neonatal colleagues in other parts of the world would view it an amazing luxury to have sufficient supplies and equipments.It is all in perspective. 

The unwrapped gifts and undecorated rooms will happily wait, the unfinished holiday letters won't know if it is 2017 or 2016, and my family will be home when I return home.  The good news is that my son's famously long holiday wish list is only as long as it has always been this year,,, "Books and Chocolate".  He used to also give me a list like "Spending time with my Happy Family and to play games" or "Some books and Legos"  So, I celebrate the season, ready or not, wrapped or not, done or not, because it does not matter what you have ready. What matters is that your heart is ready. I am counting the gifts from above, one gift at a time.  

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