{"id":271,"date":"2020-12-03T04:44:17","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T04:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/?p=271"},"modified":"2020-12-03T04:44:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T04:44:18","slug":"we-need-a-little-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/2020\/12\/03\/we-need-a-little-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need A Little Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FB_IMG_1606970583639.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FB_IMG_1606970583639.jpg 720w, https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/FB_IMG_1606970583639-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I love all things Christmas, the music especially. I would start playing it at the beginning of November if I had my way, but not everyone shares this passion of mine. But as today is December 1st I said forget it, it&#8217;s going on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The music brings me joy and peace, memories from my childhood, and hope. Especially the older songs by artists like Bing Crosby and the traditional Christian ones. I&#8217;ve heard them for years and will almost always be humming or singing along (not always while at work as it&#8217;s harder to sing along quietly), not focusing on the words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But today I heard a line that has stuck with me: &#8220;we need a little Christmas, need a little laughter&#8230; we need a little Christmas now&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is true for each and every year, but how much more so this year in 2020! How much more could we use the &#8220;Christmas spirit&#8221;! We&#8217;ve spent the last nine months living in fear, confusion, isolation, anger, depression, chaos, that today more than ever in our lives we need Christmas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I consider this Christmas spirit I think about all the wonderful things of this season that being us hope, joy, laughter, peace, and connection. I think of all the stories we hear from this time of year of giving, sharing, and grace and how even the smallest act of kindness can fill a strangers heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I challenge you as you prepare for this season to consider how you can help bring a little Christmas to the lives of those around you even today, whether it&#8217;s bringing coffee for a friend or coworker, sharing some of your favourite Christmas treats, a small stocking of gifts, or blessing a family this season, share some Christmas joy and see how far it reaches. See what kind of a difference it can make in someone&#8217;s life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love all things Christmas, the music especially. I would start playing it at the beginning of November if I had my way, but not everyone shares this passion of<span class=\"more-button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/2020\/12\/03\/we-need-a-little-christmas\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">We Need A Little Christmas<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/istedconsulting.com\/FoodForThought\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}