a carolin' means christmas

last night a select few of us (some of my favorites, in fact) from our YACS! (Young Adult CatholicS) group went christmas caroling at an independant living facility. i have to say, i was a little nervous about just going out and caroling. you just never know the reception you're going to get. and, hey, i'll admit it, sometimes retirement facilitites are depressing. plus, our group had no "formal training," persey, and i wasn't sure i wanted to go make a fool of ourselves (though i guess the hard-of-hearing are a good group to do that in front of).

in any event, it turned out surprisingly well. chris and i both agreed that it was a great time. i hadn't sung carols since i was a kid in the choir. it was really...well...christmasy. not to mention the fact that the residents loved us (even the jewish woman with the hanukka sign on her door requested "we wish you a merry christmas)." it was just so sweet. one touching moment was when a woman called us into her apt (we were singing up and down the halls). she said she was the resident's nurse and that she had "been critical" for the past few days. the nurse had stayed with her night and day and was just trying to get her to hold on. she said that she wanted to give the resident some sort of feeling of christmas but couldn't figure out how since she couldn't leave her bed. so we went into the woman's bedroom and sang 3-4 songs for her while the nurse sat in the living room crying. really touching. i guess this goes to show what i have always believed but don't often practice: it's always important to step outside your comfort zone. you don't know what you'll find, but it's often something life-altering.