Holiday Snaps

December 24, 2025

Hi Folks,

A holiday-edition newsletter from my home to yours. I'm so grateful that I get to do the work that I do with all you wonderful people.

Mom got a visit from Santa Claus. The folks at Bella Point in Freeport have been really great.

I played music at the Brunswick Winter Market and collected money for Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program. That was pretty fun!

Carol and Dana in the Two Echo woods, with Sara's dog Luna.

Shopping at Reny's.

If you don't know about Reny's, it's a department store we have here. It's a Maine Adventure!

Daughter Dana's pregnant.

I know! It's a thing!

This photo captures a very sweet intergenerational moment.

The neighborhood holiday party.

The Third Verse

Tis the gift to be knowing, tis the gift to be kind,

Tis the gift to wait

to hear another's mind,

That when we speak our feelings,

we might come out true,

Tis the gift for me,

and the gift for you.

Peace is an inside job

World peace is a nice idea, but when news of conflicts from around the world are so abundant on my screens I can find myself drowning in despair.

I’ve learned some simple tricks to help me foster peace in a battle-torn world. First of all, the world is not my responsibility. Of course people are suffering, yet just because I know about it doesn’t mean I should do something about it. I have choices.

Someone once told me, “detachment is the key to peace.” When I read a headline about homeless people in the cold I have two choices: do something about it or let it go. Fretting about “what needs be done” or lashing out at someone else with blame are generally not good choices; they just foster, well, fretting and blame.

The trick is to foster peace in my head rather than in the world. What can I do to foster peace at home, peace with myself? My trick: I draw a line between what I can change and what I can’t. I can’t change you, for instance.

more here and comments

Practical benefits of giving

Giving isn’t just for fun, it can be life-saving. Giving to others is the bedrock of step 12; the part of all 12-step recovery programs that says you gotta give to others as a strategy to save yourself. It’s a practical matter.

How many movies have we seen where — at death’s door — someone’s will to live comes from their need to give something to someone else?

Stuck in a rut? Find a person or project to give to. At the very least it will be a distraction and might get you out of your own way.

The research is clear. Giving money to another person is more likely to lift your spirits than spending money on yourself. See Money spent on others can buy happiness in the Harvard Gazette.

This New York Times article — Spend More on Society and Get More for Yourself — explains that American individualism has made individuals unhappy and, too frequently, sick.

Another social research study finds that when people give to charities it activates regions of the brain associated with pleasure, social connection, and trust, creating a “warm glow” effect. See the Jorge Moll and colleagues paper at the National Institutes of Health website. Photo credit: Jim McCarthy.

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