A Happy New Year From Me To You
Here's to a happy, healthy, and more peaceful 2022
Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
I hope that 12 months from today, we will be living in an America with a political reality that is conducive to equity and in a world no longer directed by a virus. and will be working every day to increase the chances of that. But if those things don't come to pass, even if the worst-case scenario plays out, those of us who are here will be doing what needs to be done. We will work and organize and laugh and fight and love, because that is the job of good human beings. We will do this in the small and close of our daily lives and in the larger work of our collective hearts.
John Pavlovitz
Other than presenting an opportunity for reflection and recreation, the meaning of a new year is, to me at least, usually limited to the need to buy a new calendar. This is because I no longer stay up until midnight to welcome in the new year; I figure it will be there when I wake up the following day.
2020 and 2021 have confirmed my conviction that placing too much hope in a new year is an invitation to disappointment. Sure, January 1st represents a symbolic opportunity to begin anew, but the same old problems always seem to follow me (and America) into a new year.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant death and suffering have taken the wind out of the past two years. So it’s no wonder that my expectations are low, with 2020 and 2021 serving as precursors. Along with the coronavirus, humanity hasn’t exactly set the world on fire with an oversupply of kindness and compassion.
Before I get too far down the Pessimism Expressway, though, I want to express my hope that 2022 WILL be different, that COVID-19 will begin to subside, and people will become kinder and more compassionate. Despite the fraying of the social fabric over the past few years, I refuse to believe that there’s no longer hope for America to become a more perfect union. I still believe that a spark of compassion and caring is hidden somewhere in the hatred and antipathy. I still believe in the America that came together after 9/11. That short-lived unity showed we could care about and for one another, if only for a finite period.
We’ve done it before. We can do it again.
[T]here are no ordinary days, no uneventful moments, and no meaningless decisions. Every second matters, and the day you’re currently in is the most important of your life because it is the only one you’re guaranteed.
John Pavlovitz
My hope for 2022 is to have less conflict and more benevolence. I hope for less war and more reconciliation. And I hope for less anger and recrimination and more love and forbearance. To say “we’re all in this together” sounds trite and overcooked, but it’s true. None of us will get out of here alive, so why not make our time on Earth as harmonious and peaceful as possible? Why not endeavor to hug our fellow human beings instead of smiting them?
I wish for the same thing every year- world peace and a Super Bowl win for the Minnesota Vikings. Unfortunately, door #2 looks as if it will remain closed for the foreseeable future, but rapprochement and peaceful coexistence are always possible. It’s just a matter of first finding peace within ourselves.
At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”
So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?
Marcus Aurelius
My primary goal for 2022 is to continue searching for that peace within myself. I will continue my efforts to improve my mental health and get myself to a place where life seems less burdensome. If I’m going to be here (I’m hoping for a good, long time), I want to be able to enjoy it- and so that will be my priority for this new year.
Another goal for 2022 is to be more intentional and thoughtful about my writing. I want to explore topics that make me and my readers think about the world around them. We may not change the world, but aspirational isn’t a bad place to start.
As for my readers, I hope 2022 will be a safe, happy, and peaceful time for you. I continue to be grateful for your presence here. As is true for any writer, my readers are the wind beneath my wings. I will continue working to grow my readership to reach a wider audience.
May peace and happiness settle on your shoulders and set their hooks in your soul before you realize what has happened. Y’all deserve nothing less.
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