Dear Santa
I’ve only ever written one letter to you up until now. You’ll remember more of its details than I can, but I do recall that I asked you for a sled - and you brought me one.
I hope that I thanked you for that. If not, well then, thank you. I loved that sled and had it for years. It went with me on all of our family tobagganing trips.
That little wooden sled was better loved and used than many of the other forgotten Christmas presents that I received before and after it.
In the years following, whenever my parents asked what I wanted for Christmas, I would hand them a long list of items that I was simply dying to have, items that I’d found in the Sears Christmas catalogue or advertised on television. I can’t even remember what they were now.
When I read the letters written to you by children the same age that I was then, and see the lists of things they want, I remember the old adage: There’s no harm in asking. One day I hope they will realize that the only gifts worth giving and receiving are those that come from the heart.
I am writing to you today to take care of a regret that I’ve had over the years in not writing to you again, because I’ve had a Christmas wish in my heart for many years now although I don’t speak of it because it seems so huge that it is laughable that being would be up to the task of granting it.
I would replace all of my requests - all of my yearnings - for useless presents while I was young with just one wish.
Dear Santa, if you have any influence at all, I would like just one day of peace. One day where every person in the world puts aside their weapons, physical or mental, and shakes hands with their enemy. One day where political prisoners are released and reunited with family and friends. One day when those who perpetuate wars and hatred and paranoia embrace love instead of anger and greed.
Because I think that if we had just one day of peace, we would never go back to the hatred and the destruction that takes place now and rules our existence.
Thank you, Santa. That’s all I want.
Wendy Coomber is editor of the Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal