It’s Christmas!

Many among us are having mixed feelings about Christmas this year. They find it ironic that the season of cheers comes right in the midst of sad events in the country. And yet they are grateful that Christmas is there to, at least, lighten up a bit the heavy mood of the nation.

My friend Anne worries for the victims of the natural calamities in the Visayas, what kind of Christmas they have. She also thinks of those in Zamboanga, the innocent civilians whose quiet lives have been turned upside down by the recent hostilities there. Anne is even concerned about Janet Napoles, the alleged “pork barrel queen”, how sad it certainly is for “Her Majesty” be to be spending Christmas in jail.

There’s no question about the vast kindness of this friend. She is always quick to respond to other people’s tragedies. Whether it’s a husband-and-wife quarrel, an officemate in dire need of money, even total strangers in emergency situations, Anne always goes out of her way to help.

The relief drives we have at the office for Zamboanga, Bohol and Leyte are just a few of many charitable undertakings that Anne organizes. She does these and other outreach projects without sacrificing her official duties. In fact, Anne is one of our company’s awardees this year.

Anne is a section manager at our TV production office. The job requires her to oversee several line activities simultaneously in the course of a project. In her personal life, she also singlehandedly looks after a teenage son.

I believe that this lady most deserves the happiest returns for a very full year, every year. And it worries me that this year Anne is not as happy as I think she should be. She feels she needs to do more – much more than she had already done.

It is, of course, a benevolent person who takes another’s burden as her own. And – rare as her breed is – we all would wish for her kindness to continue. Unfortunately, a consistent big giver, like Anne, also runs the risk of drying up.

“We can’t fill all the need and lack we’ll find,” I told Anne during our modest Christmas get-together last week. “While we have to do what we can, we have to be careful that we don’t pick up too many crosses that we may only break our backs trying to carry them all.”

It’s hard, I know, to put a limit to pure kindness. It’s not like a water faucet that you can open and close at will. It’s like a spring that just continuously flows.

I only want Anne to take a little breather, to give herself the appreciation that’s due her for all she’s done. If she really can’t stop, perhaps she can slow down a bit. A kind act is questionable if in the end it leaves the doer broken from physical and emotional exhaustion.

If Zamboanga, Bohol and Leyte are too heavy a thought to carry, maybe we can think of the other, much closer tragedies around. Not to say that the suffering in those calamity-hit areas will go away if we stop thinking about it. It is simply to give ourselves some time to catch our breaths, so that we may then return to the horrendous challenge with a fresh outlook and greater fortitude.

In the meantime, let’s consider the wayward kids in our neighbourhoods. Or the lonely old couple next door. For sure they, too, need our kind thought. Let’s look even closer still – and give ourselves the same kindness we offer to others.

It is the time of the biggest event of all: God comes down for our sake. So, let’s cheer up, get our heads up above the gloom that surrounds us. It’s Christmas!

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