I love the holidays.  It seems they are so well positioned that the combined effect of Christmas and New Years can't help but bring out positivity and goal setting for the New Year.

As the year winds down, it's almost as if we wind down with it.  We get into old habits, work and school grind us down, and everything about life seems kind of drab.  Sure Halloween was fun, but as November comes to a close things seem a dull shade of gray.  But then Thanksgiving comes.

And with that holiday we begin to think a little differently.  We look at what we have and we're actually thankful for it.  And by the next day - whether you agree with the commercialization of Black Friday or not - our attitudes have switched from self pity to selflessness in less than 24 hours.  It's remarkable.

The spirit of Christmas is infectious.  It's beautiful.  It's spiritual.  People begin to really understand what this whole life is about.  For an entire month, we're concerned about others.  We're happy.  We give gifts.

When Christmas finally gets here, it's wonderful to just sit back and watch the joy that you worked to bring into the lives of those you love be revealed in each gift they open.

But Christmas is more than just gifts.  It's about the Savior.  We have this month of selflessness in celebration of Him.  And that changes people.  We get to thinking about what is important in this life.  We take a look at ourselves and analyze what could be done better - how could we be more like He wants us to be.

And then perfectly, just a few days later comes the New Year - a chance to start all over, to make new goals, and strive to achieve them.

Now I know we don't all keep every New Years Resolution we make, but hopefully this year some of them will stick.  You've still got a day so think about it.  2012 is your year!

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I just finished reading Mockingjay.  Wow.  These books are amazing.  Of course I started out just enjoying the great storytelling, powerful descriptions, and entertaining plot.  And for the first two books that pretty much what it was.  But the third book felt much more powerful than that to me.  The terrors and tragedies of war lay out before me in perfect clarity.  I watched as characters I knew and loved die.  I love these books.  They will make powerful movies.  If you haven't read them.  Do it.  And soon.  I promise you'll love it.

So today I was just hanging out with my brother Mark when I noticed I got a message on my phone.  It turned out to be a Facebook message from someone I've never met before.  But it reminded me just how small this world really is and how wonderful people can be.  You see if you search "Mike Veterinarian" on www.mormon.org, you are going to come up with two people: Mike Gamble and Me. 

Apparently Mike searched just that and took to reading my profile because I talk about returning from the Singapore Mission.  He had too.  One of his Mission Presidents was President Boone - my MTC President. He served as a Young Men's President to two of the Elders I served my mission with. And he has just graduated from Kansas State with his DVM. 

It can't get much smaller than that.

He sent me a nice message thanking me for my service as a missionary and for having my mormon.org profile up and encouraged me in my quest on becoming a veterinarian.  There are a lot of great people in this world and they deserve encouragement and thanks.

So who knows, the next stranger you meet may be more connected to you than you realize.  Treat them nicely, there's no telling what kind of a difference it will make.