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I had an unexpected and wonderful surprise this morning.

Just yesterday I’d been feeling a wee bit of the holiday blues…the darker days and cold weather tends to get to me this time of year. I was feeling a real sense of “bah humbug”.  This surprise couldn’t have come at a better time.

The doorbell rang and I was greeted by one of my newest friends, Louise. She is a member of the seniors’ group at L’Arche Ottawa, a community organization for people with developmental disabilities. I first met Louise back in November when we went down to do a story on the community as they prepared for a holiday art show. You can check out that story here.

Louise had a broad smile on her face, said a cheery “Merry Christmas!”, and proudly handed me this beautiful, hand-crafted, one of a kind wooden sign:

“Bobby did the wood burning and I did the colours,” she told me. I was totally blown away. “Merry Christmas!” she exclaimed, blew me a kiss, and walked away.

We tend to get pretty stressed this time of year. We shop too much, spend too much, eat too much, and over-commit. Hustle and bustle becomes treacherous grind. We just want it to be over, so we can finally eat our turkey leftovers and relax for a few days.

But sometimes, the real spirit of Christmas sort of just bonks you over the head. When someone takes the time to do something really special, that they have poured their heart into, just because they want to show their appreciation…THAT is what this season is all about.

Thank you, Louise, Bobby, Dorothy, and Olivette, for living from the heart and for reminding us what Christmas is all about. And thank you, Rebecca Happy, for the good work you do and for caring so much.

Merry Christmas!

Tags: larche ottawa, seniors, Visual Arts

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 10:59 am and is filed under Visual Arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.