December 16, 2009

Dear Fellow Quotarians,

Season's Greetings! It's that time of year when the air is filled with excitement and anticipation. Granted, sometimes it feels more like anxiety and panic as we think of all we have to do and wonder where the year has gone. But it's also a time when a decoration, a song, or a smell stirs up a memory of a past holiday season and restores that sense of joy that this holiday brings to our lives.

One of my most vivid memories is of the family gatherings when my mother's two sisters and their families came from across the country to celebrate with us. Mother and her sisters would always laugh and tell old stories on each other as they cleaned up after a meal. Invariably, my sister and I would find ourselves being punished for some (minor) infraction and would be sent to separate rooms to sit in a chair without talking or reading until we were "heartily sorry and would never do it again." This was a frequent punishment, since we never learned how to go to sleep on time or how to giggle without being heard by our parents. But it was a welcome punishment after those family meals, because we overheard wonderful stories, which never would have been shared with us children.

For my sister, cousins, and me, the height of our annual gathering wasn't the gift exchange or the meal, it was the play we wrote and performed, often with makeshift costumes and props and occasionally with the assignment of parts to unwary adults. Our great success as thespians came to an abrupt halt one year when we used very funny dialog overheard while serving penance. It caused quite an explosion of laughter from all but the "victims." We had to give up our lives as playwrights, but all was not lost. We learned that it's not nice to embarrass your elders (even if everybody else thought it was funny), and Mother learned that chair-sitting within earshot of the action was no longer appropriate time-out for her usually perfect daughters. From then on, we cousins got to do the clean up.

Not all of my memories send me into peals of side-splitting laughter. In fact, most of them involve more solemn traditions, acts of service, and events of the season. My parents were big on volunteering, and music was at least the avocation of all of us, so Handel's "Messiah" and caroling for UNICEF were huge parts of the season's activities. Musicians often live and rear their children in an ecumenical environment, and such was my good fortune.

I believe that all of these experiences I had in my upbringing, particularly during this special time of year, are largely responsible for my love of Quota. It's the spirituality of our members that is the foundation of our giving, our sharing, and our caring for others and each other. It is the spirituality of our members that allows us to respect each others' beliefs and to disagree without animosity. It is this basic spirituality of our members that sets us apart from so many other organizations through which we can donate time and other resources.

Thank you for being the extraordinary people you are and for all that you do for Quota. May your holiday season be filled with joy, laughter, and reverence in just measure as you make new memories for your future.

Love in Quota,

Rosemary Hannie
2009-2010 President

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