happy hollandaise

It's always fun to play with words. I don't always play well with others, so words are my best friends.

Happy hollandaise! Happy holly-days! Happy holidaze!

This time of year always brings special thought to some of my favorite story lines. Like Rudolph, who was cast as a misfit and defiantly told his father, " I don't wanna Daddy. I don't like it," when asked to put that hideous red ball on his nose and hide who he was.

Sound familiar?

I remember feeling a special kinship with the toys who were abandoned on the island, simply because they weren't perfectly created. A sadness would creep into my little girl heart and really, it does to this day.

And, what about Frosty? Absolutely tortured by that nasty magician. Buddhist at heart, reconciled to the impermanence of things. He remains positive as everyone around him is bawling their eyes out. Can't even watch it.

Call me emotional, sensitive. Actually, I think it's more about compassion. The BIG E . . . . . Empathy. That thing that seems to be so lacking, if you listen to the headlines.

Listen instead to the stories that share the responses of kindness to the devastation of the NW California fires or the Carolina coast hurricane victims. You'll have to look for these stories; they're not front page news. They're there - the writers' words, softly sharing those things that bring us to our knees and lift our voices and hearts in unity and tenderness.