Celebrating the 12 days of Christmas
with short reflections on 12 gifts
When I was born, I was so surprised I didn’t talk for a year and a half.
Gracie Allen
The older we get, the less surprise there is in our lives. After all, we’ve seen it all before: the good, the bad, the ugly. As familiarity descends into jadedness, what a gift is the truly new, the unexpected, the surprise. Whether it’s as fleeting as the punchline we didn’t see coming — All day long, it was hit the ball, drag Harry — or as permanent as a new way of looking at things — Receive them ignorant, dispatch them confused (Weschler’s teaching motto) — may we remain open to surprise.
