Caring for those who are ill or injured is a 24 hours a day job, 365 days a year… including the holidays. 

Being on call during the holidays comes with a little sadness, but it’s complicated. If you’ve ever worked in a hospital during the holidays, you know it’s special in a way that’s hard to describe. Somehow everything seems a little gentler. Even though everyone working would like to be home, they also realize it’s even more true for the patients…. especially if they are children. Kids in the hospital at Christmas tug at the heartstrings of everyone except the very few not-yet-transformed Grinches or Scrooges (and even they are not immune). 

But it’s not just doctors and nurses, it’s everyone working during the holidays whose work helps to make others whole… because healing isn’t just about procedures, medications, and diagnosis… it’s about making others whole. In fact, the word literally means “to make whole”.

Old English hælan “cure; save; make whole, sound and well,” from Proto-Germanic *hailjan (source also of Old Saxon helian, Old Norse heila, Old Frisian hela, Dutch helen, German heilen, Gothic ga-hailjan “to heal, cure”), literally “to make whole” (from PIE *kailo- “whole;” see health).

etymonline.com

Police officers, fire fighters, EMTs, paramedics, 911 dispatchers, social workers, counselors, clergy all work to decrease suffering and heal. So do the people who clean, cooking, answer phones, or do anything to make that healing possible.

So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Joyous Solstice to all who are working over the next few weeks… and all who support them in this work. All of our winter celebrations have one thing in common… celebrating light coming into a world that struggles with darkness, light that heals.

If you are working during the holidays, thank you for being that light.

p.s. My family makes this cranberry bread every year for Christmas. It’s delicious, makes your house smell incredibly wonderful, and (BTW) is a fabulous way to say “Thank you!” to a healer in your life who is working during the holidays. 

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl:

• 2 cups  flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Combine in a Pyrex measuring cup:

• 2 Tbsp melted butter
• Juice and grated rind of one large orange

Fill with boiling water to make 3/4 cup then add to dry ingredients. Then add the following to the batter

• 1 egg
• 1 cup nuts (chopped walnuts)
• 1 cup raw cranberries (cut in half)

Bake in loaf pan (325° for metal pan, 300° for glass pan) for 1 hour

• Test with toothpick

p.p.s. If you are particularly motivated to bake and give some away to neighbors and friends multiplying by 9 is the key to easy measurement:

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl:

1 5 lb bag  flour

1 4 lb bag sugar

1 1/2 tblsp salt

4 1/2 tblsp baking powder

1 1/2 tblsp baking soda

Combine in a Pyrex measuring cup:

1 1/8 cup melted butter  (2.25 sticks)

Juice and grated rind of nine large oranges

Fill with boiling water to make 6 3/4 cup then add to dry ingredients

Add 9 eggs

9 cup nuts (chopped walnuts) = 3 lbs

9 cup raw cranberries (cut in half) = 3 12 oz bags

Bake in loaf pans (325° for metal pan, 300° for glass pan) for 1 hour

Test with toothpick