The holiday season is upon us once again. Christmas trees and menorahs are making their annual escape from attics, reindeer are migrating into suburban yards overnight, Kwanzaa menus are appearing on kitchen notepads, and distant aunts are racking their brains for gift ideas.

This poem by Longfellow suggests that the most meaningful holidays are created when, in the midst of all the hubbub, we take a few moments to turn inward and appreciate the poignant mixture of sadness, joy, longing, and hope that this season so often brings.

Happy Holidays to one and all!

Holidays

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

The holiest of all holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart,
When the full river of feeling overflows;
The happy days unclouded to their close;
The sudden joys that out of darkness start
As flames from ashes; swift desires that dart
Like swallows singing down each wind that blows!
White as the gleam of a receding sail,
White as a cloud that floats and fades in air,
White as the whitest lily on a stream,
These tender memories are;— a Fairy Tale
Of some enchanted land we know not where,
But lovely as a landscape in a dream.