By: Sandra Thompson
NFBPWC’s Immediate Past President 

I would just like to take this time to wish all of you a very happy and healthy holiday season.  I hope that you enjoy it with family and friends.  Below is a poem that I found that my mother had sent out to friends and family many years ago.  I wanted to share it with you.

Holidays

There is a list of folks I know

All written in a row

And every year at holiday time

I go and take a look

And that is when I realize that

These names are a part

Not of the book they’re written in

But of my very heart.

For each name stands for someone

Who has touched my life sometime,

And in that meeting they’ve become

The rhythm of the rhyme.

I really feel I am composed

Of each remembered name.

And while you may not be aware

Of feeling quite the same

My life is so much better

Than it was before you came.

For once that you have know someone

The years cannot erase

The memory of a pleasant work

Or of a friendly face.

So never think my holiday cards

Are just a mere routine

Of names upon a list,

Forgotten in between.

For when I send a holiday card

That is addressed to you

It’s because you’re on that list

Of folks I’m indebted to.

And whether I’ve known you

For many years or few.

In some way you have had a part

In shaping things I do.

So every year when the holidays come

I just realize anew

The biggest gift that God can give

Is knowing folks like you.