You’ve seen the images and read the stories. Good people serving turkey and fixings to those who had no Thanksgiving meals. Kids bundling nonperishable goods to make food baskets for people in need. Groups preparing dinners designed for hungry folks. Volunteers with boots and buckets collecting money to cover holiday needs and buy gifts.

People spend hours doing good deeds and offering acts of kindness this time of year. It’s contagious, sometimes therapeutic. But soon, post-holiday, get-back-to-normal life sets in. By the first of the year, the compassionate bubble bursts.

Some of us will be at the point where we turn our heads when we see the “Will work for food” signs. We’ll complain when we hear or see news reports about spiraling unemployment, homelessness and depression. Long lines of jobless scouring for work become sobering reminders that we might be joining these folks in coming days. Yes, it could be you. Could be me.

But I’m an optimist at heart and in spirit. Some people call it faith.

So when the ginger cookies are gone, the pies are a distant memory and holiday leftovers become blessings to the pets, what will you have to inspire people who stood in this month’s feeding lines or who were recipients of the well-stocked food baskets?

Can’t say “Happy Thanksgiving” or “Merry Christmas.”

But you can stop among those folks and ask how they’re doing and wish them well.

And saying “I care” works anywhere, anytime of year. Don’t throw out your caring and compassionate spirit with the tinsel garland and wrapping paper. Decorate someone’s life in March, July and September by giving the gift of love.