This Christmas, I Didn't Need to Go Hunting for Goodwill

This Christmas, I Didn't Need to Go Hunting for Goodwill

January 3, 1999

The Boston Herald

Getting back on the horse. Buckling up and down. The party's over, the holidays are past. The lights are packed in boxes, the tree's in the trash, the presents put away, the cookies eaten, the chocolates from Hilliard's mercifully gone.

It's time to swear off junk food and go back to the gym and walk every day and at least look at the checkbook and read something a little more stimulating than lists of what's in and what's out and who did what last year.

It's this year now.

But before Christmas of 1998 is relegated to ancient history and the goodwill of the season sealed away, there are some people I'd like to thank for sharing their goodwill with me.

Dottie Kelly is tops on the list.

Every year this woman I don't know sends me a family of gingerbread people, which she rolls, cuts out, bakes, decorates, wraps, seals and delivers.

The family is my family, tree ornaments with our names spelled out in white frosting. This year she phoned to check on the new son-in-law. "It's Dave, isn't it?" she asked.

She makes thousands of gingerbread people and it takes her hundreds of hours. But she does this because she can, because she does it well, because, she says, this is her Christmas gift to people she cares about.

Thank you, Dottie Kelly.

Every year, a few days before Christmas, Mr. McPherson, a neighbor I seldom see except at Christmas, rings my doorbell and hands me one of his homemade cinnamon-raisin breads wrapped in foil. Why does he do this? He doesn't have to. The first year I was flabbergasted. But now I've become accustomed to his generous gift; I anticipate it and savor the bread Christmas morning.

Thank you, Mr. McPherson.

Every year, throughout the year, Gerald Riding sends me poems he writes about holidays and seasons. "Love and Winter" arrived this Christmas. This is how it begins: "The last farewells of autumn- Have finally been sung- And leafless trees reach for a sky- Where winter stars are hung.- The brittle stems of summer's blooms- Lie strewn along the lanes- While December dawn paints fair faces- On frosty window panes."

Thank you, Gerald Riding.

Louise Nolan, who hardly has a minute for herself, faxed me a poem someone sent to her that she thought I'd like. It's called "The Christmas Card List," and it's about people we care about but don't see enough, friends whose names fill our address books.

"There is a list of folks I know- All written in a book- And every year at Christmastime- I go and take a look.- For each name stands for someone- Who has touched my life sometime- And in that meeting they've become- A special friend of mine.- I really feel that I'm composed of each remembered name- And my life is so much better- Than it was before they came."

Thank you, Louise.

We lost the electricity in our kitchen on Christmas Day in the middle of cooking dinner for a crowd. A circuit breaker burned out.

Jonathan Levis, our young electrician, was in the middle of his own Christmas dinner when he got our SOS. He came immediately, replaced the burned-out breaker and saved our day.

Thank you, Jonathan Levis.

Thank you Dick and Jane Kelley for continuing to let us be part of your annual Christmas celebration. Thank you Grace for "O Holy Night," and Gerry for all the nights we've been lucky enough to hear you play.

Thank you Dave over at Copy Max in Walpole for so valuing the work of a young artist that you gave her your time and attention the other night, though it was late and you had other work to do.

Thank you, World, for the annual intermission from serious pursuits, for a season that not only allows but encourages thoughtfulness, tenderness and togetherness.

As children we are taught to send thank you notes for gifts we receive at Christmas. But gifts of time and gifts of the heart we accept as if they are our due.

As adults we know better.

Gifts that can't be bought in stores are the real treasures. Time. Attention. Good wishes. Goodwill. So thank you for all these things.

Now let the New Year begin.