The Spirit of the Season
This holiday season, I hope each of you finds time to rest and recharge. Spend time with those you love. Eat a bit too much of your favorite foods. Strengthen your resolve. Replenish your soul.
We can best care for each other if we are able to draw on a source of calm and peace from within. If we find a way to extend care and compassion to all. If we demonstrate love to one another and give those we serve the very best of our humanity.
I am so very proud of the UMMC family. The last few years may have left us a little banged up and battered but we are far from down. We are resilient. We are driven by our mission. We are committed to serving our state in the ways that only we can. And to those of you who will be working this weekend, continuing to care for Mississippians who seek or need our help, I’m especially grateful.
We are stronger individually and as an organization than we were a few years ago. How is this possible? Because when adversity struck, you were ready. You were prepared. We stepped up in a million ways – some large and some small – to answer the call. We have grown and learned. We are ready for whatever 2023 has in store for us.
I wish you and yours the happiest of holidays and hope you have a full and rewarding time with family and friends however you are celebrating.
May the words that are common to all faith traditions celebrated around this time – love, kindness, peace, hope – stay in your heart the whole year. And I’d like to share with you these two quotes that remind us that the joyous feeling and generous spirit felt during the holidays can, and should, stay with us.
— — —
It came without ribbons.
It came without tags.
It came without packages.
boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled 'till
his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of
something he hadn't before.
What if Christmas, he thought,
doesn't come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps,
means a little bit more!
— Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch stole Christmas
— — —
“Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself.”
— Norman Wesley Brooks, Let Every Day Be Christmas