As of now, I’ve written nearly ten columns in this space that focus on the end of the preceding year and the start of the next one.
They have really been variations on a theme for the most part, focusing on the reflections most of us will undertake when we put three-hundred and sixty-five days in the rear view mirror, be those days bad or good and look at the coming year as either a hopeful continuation of our good fortune or a complete turn around from the bad times that we pray are behind us.
2020 of course was a different beast all together, no matter what political party you support, whether the industry you work in saw changes or not from the stress and strain of this ongoing period of discontent, the coming of a new year symbolically ushers in another chance, another opportunity to take our hardships and both our wins and losses and put them in better perspective.
What perspective to take is another matter, safe to say almost everyone in the United States has personal feelings, grudges, and concerns going forward, this year has included a great deal of unrest and sorrow, but if we leave the big stage of politics and policy aside for a moment, where does that leave us as individuals?
In my opinion, it leaves us as Human beings living together in the same society, one that has faced challenges this year with more to come and will probably never be the same again in one fashion or another.
The sense of being similar rather than different, of being of the same nation with the same basic ideals that champion values like freedom and unity is where our focus should be.
Winter was always the roughest season in most parts of the world historically, the harvest is over, the sun appears for only a few hours each day to warm us, many face weather more suited for a polar bear than a Human being and the slog till Spring seems insurmountable at times.
Nature points us to the wisdom that it is only a temporary hardship, that the sun will again draw closer to the Earth and warm her skin, that the plants will return to grow for the next harvest, that snow and ice will melt in time.
In my opinion we must do the same with our hearts, the same with our souls, use the new found year to let the ice melt around our hearts, plant the seeds of love and kinship again, to forget the year behind us that brought so much strife and move forward to hopefully better days in 2021.
This year has been hard on all of us, it’s time to let it go and unite under the banner of faith and love and kindness in all those around us, to believe better times are ahead, and never falter for one minute in the thought that we can repair the fractures and heal from a year that will go down in history.
Happy new year to all of you, let’s all do our parts to make it the best year we can.
