The Twelve Blogs of Christmas, Day Five

Day Five,

I am reliably informed it is a full moon, lunar eclipse and the winter solstice here in the northern hemisphere. It would be great to see a total eclipse of the moon but alas the cloud cover seems to be conspiring to make that an impossible dream. The  last full moon eclipse and solstice last occurred nearly 400 years ago and I am going to have to watch it youtube. Oh well never mind.

Today the snow is set to return and while I understand the chaos and inconvenience that heavy snow causes I think there is something pure and pristine about freshly fallen snow that has not been disturbed by traffic.

Today is rent day supposedly, I say supposedly because the rent collector failed to show up. This is the day in each month I lighten the weight of my wallet, but it does carry the distinct advantage of ensuring that I and my family have a roof over our heads during the year and is a particularly important asset when outside the temperature struggles to get anything close to freezing even, it was  minus 5 today all day. A strange phenomena in this country is that it warms up a little to snow. Today’s projected increase in the temperature is expected to see us reach the balmy heights of minus 3 degrees.

Christmas is a time for families but at the same time the “season of goodwill” brings out our philanthropic side and often finds us considering the plight of those less fortunate than ourselves, unless of course we require the services of three ghosts. many of us do a little bit more to help our chosen charity at this time of the year, This might only be dropping a little small change into the collection box of the lady standing at the supermarket entrance collecting for a worthy cause. Alternatively some buy an extra can of food or perhaps a gift to donate.

My oldest Son’s workplace operate a scheme called “Secret Santa”. The idea is that each employee buys a gift or item of provisions which once collected are then delivered to an individual, family or group that they know to be under privileged. we also have soup wagons that go out onto the streets at night and issue hot soup , bread and blankets to the homeless, God knows they need it in these temperatures.

At our Mall they have a donation bin for cans of pet food for local animal shelters. The message seems very clear to me. There is no need for sweeping gestures of generosity that far exceed our resources, but a small contribution of some small change, an extra can of beans or pet food really does help those in need.