Has “making a list and checking it twice” now roared to the top of your To Do List? Oh, my!
As in all seasons, the incomparable gifts are compassion and loving-kindness. Still, our Community Choir’s “Winter Concert” is doing its part to invite open hearts this Solstice Season.
Our title alone sings out genuine inclusiveness of everyone’s needs when darkness defines The Season (in the Northern Hemisphere!). The songs are soft and loud, fast and slow, fun, discoveries meet the recognizable, and all with just the right touch of “tradition”.
Here’s a sneak-peek. We’re singing a song, new to me at least: The Christmas Rush. It’s a bit of fun for audience and choristers alike, in the time-tested style of “Show&Tell”. Each of us has a shopping bag full of “object lessons” - good, bad, funny - ending with a gift each singer would welcome.
No “spoiler alert” required. Mine is a book. And not just any book!
Certain Poor Shepherds: A Christmas Tale - The Animals’ Story is my own best “seasonal” book ever. And, yes, I do give it - often - in honor of the season.
It’s author, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, is internationally famous for her genius in revealing The Hidden Life of Dogs (as well as Reindeer Moon, both best-seller sensations around the world) and her other treasures too.
With Shepherds, her apparent “second sight” into the realities of all living creatures - no-nonsense! - and nature itself carries the reader to the heart of the Christian world’s focus this time of year - the “Nativity Scene”. Two shepherds (a tenderhearted goat and a large and fierce dog) lead their personal flock of sheep into adventure, danger, beauty and grief, learning from it all. Plus! Guided by some downright amiable angels! And yes, I reread it annually.
This is powerful stuff. I credit the above, Reindeer Moon, and, of course, The Hidden Life of Dogs directly for my enduring relationship with “Liz”. She has been on our Paula Gordon Show (4 times, unprecedented!), graced us with her friendship since 1997 when we were personally drawn together by these magnificent Shepherds (published the year before) and now - adding to all with which she has gifted the world, poignantly - has given us Growing Old: Notes on Aging with Something Like Grace!
So… Still wondering “What to give X”…? In my considerable experience, book-lover that I most assuredly am - the BEST gift is the one that needs no giftwrap. Friendship.
P.S. If you’ve already given any or all of Elizabeth Marshall Thomas’ work to yourself and everyone you know, The Guardian newspaper (12-13-2025) asked 30 well-known authors what “novels, poetry and memoirs … make the perfect gift”? Their answers are as enticing as the 30 authors’ own contributions to our better selves.
I have never met Liz in person, but have benefited from Paula‘s friendship with her over the years.
And it has been a particular delight to be able to give fellow cat lovers their own copy of “Tribe of Tiger“ which shows the strong similarities in anatomy, physiology, and behavior from the tiniest kitten to the largest lion.
I like it that in Ann Arbor, Michigan there is a cat café and adoption center, which is called “Tiny Lions” – through which our daughter and husband have brought into our lives our two GrandCats.
You can check it out at
tinylions.org sponsored by the Humane Society of Huron Valley
(hshv.org)… or better yet, Find and Support, rescue and or TNR organization in your home community.
Liz and Paula are my inspiration for reflecting on all of this. But it really started when our daughter brought home two kittens from her preschool whom the teachers had brought for a “show and tell.”