You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!

-Charles Dickens, Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol”

Scrooge did not know what to make of his mystical experience, of the apparition he saw before him. It was bewildering, and it could have been any number of things, even a combination of things, even with real biological and neurological factors involved. He was quick to want to dismiss it as simply a pathological state of the mind-body.

But as he engaged with the mystical experience, as he surrendered himself to it, and dove into it, allowing it to communicate with him deeply, and change him at a deep level, he was able to see it in a whole new Light. His interpretations of it revealed a goodness in it that was valuable to his life, perhaps infinitely so. His ego relaxed and gave up the ghost, and he was filled with Love for all humanity.

It’s in the singing of a street corner choir
It’s going home and getting warm by the fire
It’s true, wherever you find love
It feels like Christmas

A cup of kindness that we share with another
A sweet reunion with a friend or a brother
In all the places you find love
It feels like Christmas

It is the season of the heart
A special time of caring
The ways of love made clear
It is the season of the spirit
The message, if we hear it
Is ‘make it last all year’

It’s in the giving of a gift to another
A pair of mittens that were made by your mother
It’s all the ways that we show love
That feel like Christmas

A part of childhood we’ll always remember
It is the summer of the soul in December
Yes, when you do your best for love
It feels like Christmas

It is the season of the heart
A special time of caring
The ways of love made clear
It is the season of the spirit
The message, if we hear it
Is ‘make it last all year’

It’s in the singing of a street corner choir
It’s going home and getting warm by the fire
It’s true, wherever you find love
It feels like Christmas
It’s true, wherever you find love
It feels like Christmas
It feels like Christmas
It feels like Christmas

“It Feels Like Christmas,” written by Paul Williams

And if you’re wondering why I’m posting this in September, my mother taught me to keep Christmas with me all through the year.