All is calm. All is bright.

If you watch the news every day, you might say things are not very calm, and not very bright either. We are apprehensive and find it hard to acknowledge the unsettling discomfort around the difficult challenges in the world this holiday season.

But can we find “calm and bright” in different and unusual places? Focus on “be” rather than “do”. Find ways to help your neighbour and those in need. In turning away from the hustle and bustle that normally overwhelms us throughout the holiday season, we can embrace different opportunities for “calm and bright” which might be exactly the gift we need this year.

Find gratitude in the little things and be thankful for the small acts of kindness which keep brightness in our lives.

“It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do, and the holiday season - like all the other seasons - is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them” Lemony Snicket, The Lump of Coal