Feeling harried this season? A little Christmas story you may relate to in the column below.

sanglot (sahn-glo) noun, masculine
    : sob

verb: sangloter (sahn-glo-tay)
    : to sob

Listen to my daughter read today's word and the following quote: Download Sanglot . Download Sanglot

"Dieu entend mieux un sanglot qu'un appel."  –Saint Augustine

"Mama said there'd be days like this… "
(or Maman a dit qu'il y aurait des jours comme ça….)

Ever wake up "plein de bonnes intentions*?" Your heart is full and you might just save the world… with your patience, your lessons learned, and that little bit of resilience that you have painstakingly re-affirmed? …only to crawl into bed, at the end of the day, depleted, defeated, nerve-endings astray?

Such was last night.

As for the bundle of sensitivity, located somewhere beneath stilled sanglots* and a rapid heartbeat… I do not know whether it was those capricious Christmas consumers at Carrefour,* who were ahead of the rush by three weeks or more, or whether it was the evening meal, when I looked across the table to my children…growing, growing, growing still!

These days I feel like Chicken Little, running hither and thither with my shopping cart, trying to catch the sentimental sky, before childhood or Christmas pass me by.