Take extra time and expend extra effort to hug your family or friends this fine day.

Loving other people is, supposedly, what today is about. I think the Jesus who does simply that (but not weakly, that) gets lost in the shuffle.

Here’s a poem by Russel Jaffe, who got a Poetry MFA from Columbia in 2008. It was included in our president’s creepy-cool holiday card to us.

Personal destination

This year, be generous
by cyclical, land gently,
Soar this time as yourself,
let winter lights bend around your trail