Why I (Still) Wear A Santa Hat

~To inspire, and witness, the wonder slowly lighting up the little girl’s eyes who is stopped in her tracks as she spies me rounding the corner in the grocery store…along with the ensuing smiles that magically connect us

~To lift up the strangers walking by me on a dark, frigid afternoon, who suddenly emerge from huddling against the weather to warm the atmosphere with a playful remark

~To share a moment of conversation with the elderly couple sitting next to me at the coffee shop who turn and offer good wishes of the season as they pass by

~To listen to people’s wish lists at Christmastime, which more strangers have confided than you might imagine

~To remind myself of the crucial practice of cultivating openness and generosity…and to remind myself of the boundless capacity of the human heart that so often just wishes to be acknowledged

Can you do all of this without wearing a Santa Hat? Of course!

Yet, as I’ve written before, the Santa Hat is a signal for play, for connection, for expansiveness.  Today, a friend told us about the transformative effect her wearing a silly Santa headband to the office had had on previously low or crotchety clients. They were buoyed! And, therefore, buoyant. (Thanks, Miss P)

No surprise here. When she asked if I still wear my Santa Hat, I replied, you bet!

It is my tiny, humble offering of delight, light, heart to this glorious, and hungering, world.

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”~Desmond Tutu