THE changing of the year. A time for reflection and a time of optimistically looking forward; hoping for the better.
This time last year I imagine many of us made a New Year#s Resolution, probably more than one, but perhaps unusually this year I have achieved at least one of those resolutions… I’ve lost a stone in weight.
OK, perhaps it doesn’t show but the fact that I can now wear clothes I couldn’t a year ago testifies to my ‘success’.
Having laid down some of my responsibilities as Leader of Teignbridge Council (though remaining as a councillor) and also no longer being a Devon County Councillor (though an Honorary Alderman) I have more time for reading, and simply thinking.
Often life has been just so busy there hasn’t been time for considered thought.
We should all take time to think, reflect, analyse, adjust. Perhaps therein lies a resolution for 2022?
2021 has seen major strife and discord, (so what’s new I hear you say). It is a curse on our lives and is seen at every level; within families, within just about every organisation and certainly within the political world.
Tensions locally and nationally distract and disturb. What are Russia’s true intentions with regard to the Ukraine and what is China planning in the Far East? International conflicts and climate change are contributing to large scale movements of people, mankind appears at the cross roads and seems paralysed by overwhelming problems.
Closer to home our beloved NHS is under incredible pressure due to increased demands placed on services.
In the last 12 months the medical profession has endured unprecedented work loads and the strains are showing.
The pandemic has caused separation, division and loss, all painful and regrettable. Brexit is neither done nor (yet?) a positive. Perhaps petty argument has always been the thread which binds and divides political entities?
So much aggro, so much wasted energy and time.
It would be easy therefore to be weighed down with the sheer misery of it all, and yet that is the last thing to which we should succumb.
So, what is the answer? We should look surely for all the good and beauty there is in this world.
Wherever you look it can be found and we should rejoice in it all…human nature can be a wonderful thing and looking for and finding good is uplifting and hugely rewarding.
Acts of kindness, generosity of spirit, going the extra mile… time and again good can be found (Yes of course it can… start looking through another set of eyes.)
I accept that it is so easy to see bad, to see turmoil and sadness, the ugly side of mankind, but keep looking.
At the turn of the year and right now at Christmas, let love for one another triumph over divisive anger and bitterness.
We all have to choose, either to seek harmony and positivity or discord and negativity. The choice is yours.
What is the true meaning of Christmas? Christians rejoice at the birthday of their (and the worlds) Saviour.
Christ came to bring love, honesty, moral standards and thankfully, forgiveness through faith. Christmas is very much about family and friendship, (for the second Christmas running CV is sadly preventing my family gathering) it’s about celebration but so much more than a good blow out and a hangover.
As a nation and as a human race we need to reconsider the true implications of Christmas and ensure love for human kind, to help whenever and however we can, and for these values to become dominant in our life styles.
That wouldn’t be a bad resolution for the new year.
Have a good one… however you perceive it to be!