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1. Last year I wrote a list of gifts I’d like for 2020,
It was – I admit - a list quite long, a list of wishes plenty:
A new iphone, Fitbit, paddle board, the list went on and on…
But perhaps a list of material things is where my list went wrong.
For 2020 has been a year, a year like none before,
With each of us being locked away, behind our own front door.
And seeing our families, friends, and loved ones, was prohibited and banned,
and holidays, and weddings, and birthdays… all became unplanned!
The weekly shopping trip to Tesco, where ‘every little helps’,
became – let’s be honest – a guilty pleasure, an occasion in itself!
But even then, the looping queues round carparks took its toll…
and once inside, the search began, for coveted toilet roll!
Even standing on the doorstep on Thursdays was an outing…
Neighbours distantly standing side by side, with claps, and pans, and shouting!
Those evenings were a chance, for two minutes just to see,
Some other human beings, but gone by Seven O’Three.
And the definition of a ‘Hero’ changed, and evolved to rightly be,
less about humans wearing spandex, and more those in PPE.
As Doctors, Nurses, and all Healthcare workers, took a risk to save more lives,
wrapped in plastic from head to toe, in the hope that more survive.
But the lives we’ve lost, the human cost, of Covid through this year,
The broken mental health of those with job loss, dread, and fear,
The memories missed, the unhugged and unkissed, who live each day alone,
Who’s houses feel empty… for people make a home.
So, this year Santa my list will be, different from 2019,
Instead I’ll wish for acts of kindness, both visible and unseen.
I’ll wish for men and women to be inspired to go do good,
to end division, racism, poverty and hate, as every one of us should!
Instead of wanting material goods, I’ll turn my thoughts and deeds,
to lifting the troubles, concerns, and worries, of those I see in need.
To those with faith and those without, may I humbly just suggest,
that putting ‘love’, at the top of your list, would surely be the best.
DEAR SANTA
MERRY CHRISTMAS
MUCH LOVE, VIEW3D