Today I have a new holiday song for you from the recently released compilation record, A Dualtone Christmas, containing Christmas songs by artists on the label. I’m talking about “Holiday Song” by Amos Lee. I love the ideas in this song. This time of year more than any other we talk about peace and in this song Amos Lee talks about not just wishing for peace but being an agent of peace even in the smallest of ways with lyrics like “my peace will start with me” and “to my gift I will be true and do what little I can do”.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately and the little things that can bring great joy. I was thinking about some of the things that have brought me the most joy this year are little things that people in my neighborhood do. I’ve written about some of them here and some of them I’ve been planning to write about but haven’t yet even though I have the photos to go with the posts. It’s just little things like switching out flags, putting little seasonal hats on the spiral of ceramic cats they have on the wall of their house, painting light posts, and creating a gnome garden for neighborhood children. Also, the man who started cleaning the library overnight this fall before he leaves in the morning writes messages of encouragement on a whiteboard near the entrance. I love seeing them when I come in every morning and was especially delighted to see his final message of the year on Wednesday. It’s hard to read the actual message in the picture, but the fact that he brought in this Santa balloon and drew him going down the chimney made mine and I know a lot of other people’s days.

It makes me think about what am I doing to bring joy to people or to try and create peace. At my church we talk about shalom meaning nothing missing, nothing broken and that’s the peace we’re working towards. Living in a city where the problems seem so intractable and are getting worse every year instead of better sometimes it’s hard to see how anything can make a difference. Add to that everything else horrible that’s going on int he world and most of the time I just feel a sense of defeated hopelessness. But then I’m reminded that sometimes even little things matter. It’s part of the reason I did the year of the cookie project in 2018 to try and bring a little joy into the world. I never feel like I’m doing enough on a larger scale. I mostly just throw money at the things I believe in, which is of course needed but it never feels like enough and I know the sacrifice would be giving more of my time because it’s what I’m more selfish with. So I will spend this season reflecting once again on as Amos Lee says what my gifts are and using them to do what little I can do to do my part to create peace and a world where nothing is missing and nothing is broken.