Siting around on New Year’s Day discussing the previous year, one of the group said, ‘It’s been a terrible year’ and rattled off all the celebrities who have died in 2016 and all the things that will change the world, Brexit, Trump, Trump, did I say Trump? When my husband said, ‘Well it wasn’t as bad as 1665.’‘What happened then?’ asked our friend.
‘The black plague. That’s what happened. About one in four people in London died of it, mainly spread by rats and vermin.’
‘Ohhh’, she shuddered, ‘that sounds horrible’.
‘Well, it does put things into perspective a bit doesn’t it?’
Life is what it is. It’s hard, soft, rigid, yielding: sometimes all at the same time. And it’s our focus that leads the way for us. I think I spend too much time scanning for problems rather than being grateful.
The thing is, we don’t know what’s ahead; we don’t know what will happen over then next year; we can’t, that’s the way it works on planet earth.
But we can choose to look at what’s working, and be grateful about it. Because so much is working.
I look into the faces of my grandchildren and see their love; they are so ready to laugh. Their inspiration for me is, let’s be more ready to laugh. Let’s look at the world without having our minds calculate beforehand. So much has happened in the past but let’s frame it and leave it there. It has no place in the now, only as part of the tapestry that has made us who we are.
Let’s look forward to the opportunity our creative souls crave, to ignite and light our flame. Each of us is a creative genius. Take the pen in our hand, pick up the paintbrush, take those photos, colour in that picture, sing that song, breathe the breath of what a new year brings each and every one of us.