A young child looks innocently at Christmas
enjoying the feelings and emotion Christmas can offer.

She grows up

and experiences the craziness Christmas season is.
She still loves Christmas,
but it becomes harder to enjoy.

The stress builds like the layers of clothing she wears.
It gets so intense she can’t bear it.

Her parents have died
and her husband has left.
Her children are at school.
Nobody wants her or needs her anymore.

She enters the den
and unlocks the gun cabinet.
She takes her ex-husband’s pistol out,
removes the safety
and turns it toward her head.

But then she hears it.
The quiet but familiar tones of Christmas.
The songs she listened to on the radio
while snuggled up by the fire when she was young.
She remembers the simple sound she loved as a child.

She lowers the gun
and puts it away.
Then she turns on the radio
And listens to her childhood.
She feels happiness as she listens to her childhood Christmas in peace.
She remembers what Christmas is about.