After eleven days of not waking up to the alarm clock, it was time to go back to work. It is remarkable that we can put our work life behind us for the holidays and come back refreshed, only to find that just because we didn't think about them, the tasks left unfinished are still there.

I was struck this year, more than in the past, by the changes that took place in that relatively short period of time, some happy and some sad. One colleague proposed to his love on a stuffed sofa in front of a raging fire while listening to live jazz. He couldn't stop grinning as he told us his story of going to the bathroom to practice his proposal while she wondered if he was ill because he was gone so long.

Another colleague, who had lost her mother just weeks ago, lost her grandmother over the holidays. Unbearable sadness for her. And one of our students lost his 21-day old -newborn after several near miracles in the neo-natal intensive care unit. There is no solace for him and his family.

Good and bad things happen all year long. Yet when they happen around the holidays…