This time of year, there are a lot of challenges to those struggling to believe.
To believe in Santa, to believe in hope, to believe in a better tomorrow.
One of my favorite things to read this time of year (that without fail makes tears sting my eyes), is the famous response one newspaper reporter took the time to write back in 1897 to one little girl’s struggle to believe.
If you’ve never read it, I encourage you to read the entire reply in the New York The Sun.
It’s a beautiful, heartfelt editorial to not just one child, or hundreds of children, but also to the young at heart, the broken-hearted, and those afraid to believe.
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy… there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. “
There is something magical and uplifting and so joyful about casting aside our doubts, our deep-rooted fears, and believing.
Believing in hope and faith, in fairness and truth, in peace and kindness, in generosity and devotion, and most definitely in love.
May this holiday season be one filled with laughter, hope, sweetness, kindness, and joy… the joy that comes when you just let go and believe.
If you’d rather listen to it, you can enjoy Sam Elliott reading “Yes, Virginia” in this scene from the movie “Prancer.”
