I have a bad day once every other month, when I feel like the amalgamation of disappointments, stresses, and seeming failures of the previous weeks compound into a helplessness that almost clouds my vision of reality. Depression runs in my family, and by now I've learned how to cope with it, usually by thinking of how blessed I am in light of the struggles going on every day throughout the world. Some small hope always wakes me up from the horrible, downtrodden feelings, and my outlook is immediately shaken back into a pleasant reality.

Tonight I turned on "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and I was filled again with childlike enthusiasm and anticipation for Christmas. It's amazing how something like Linus's retelling of the the Christmas story can restore that hope...