Merry Christmas

I was a band geek - yes I was. My sophomore year the Band Christmas party was held at the Johnson's. Halfway through the party someone organized a little caroling group. There were about a dozen of us, mostly the girls, but the Ballager brothers came with us! Shocker of shockers. These were not the two one would think would do such a thing.
We started off down the street stopping at different houses and sang the standards. It was fun, and we were successful. All having some sort of an affinity for music we were pretty good. We rounded the block and were half way up the next street when we came to a house that was clearly having a Christmas party of it's own. We stopped and started singing.
At first, only a few excited people came out. As we kept singing more and more people came out onto the porch. Finally, we decided to finish up and sing Silent Night. The party came to a stop, everyone came out on the porch, and they joined in. We all sang together, the Ballager brothers sang harmony, and we sang as many verses as we could. I remember first getting chills, and then a different feeling came over me, a powerful feeling of what - I can't put my finger on even now. It had something to do with being able to give a gift to complete strangers, to give unexpected happiness and to receive it at the same time. It didn't cost money or effort; it was graciously given and accepted. It was a chord in complete harmony of the universe.
We finished and everyone clapped - we wished each other Merry Christmas and moved on. I will never forget that evening. The gift is a memory of complete peace and harmony with perfect strangers. If we could put more of that into the world on a daily basis - imagine what could be accomplished.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Happy Chanukah. Happy Kwanza. I wish you all peace, joy and happiness.