Happy New Year

Happy New Year

A post to say Happy New Year to you all and thanks for visiting this site. I hope it’s given you some pleasure. I’ve enjoyed writing it and getting the occasional comment back from some of you. It has brought some new friendships and rekindled one or two old ones. Nowadays, more than any other time in my life, I am appreciating that gift of friendship. I don’t want this to sound like some sort of sermon or lecture but because I consider you all to be my friends to some degree or other, I’d like to offer you a little comfort if possible.

You know, there’s a lot of craziness going on in the world today, the likes of which we haven’t seen before. It can make us feel quite insecure and wonder where the hell it’s leading to. The trouble is, there’s virtually nothing we can do to avoid it or improve it. We can’t make changes on a global or national scale, we have to leave that to the madmen who are in charge. That’s the scary bit, and feeling powerless. But we can change our own little worlds. We do have the power to do that to some extent. So that’s my bit of advice to you all. We can try to make our immediate environment a place where we can feel more at ease. We can offer some comfort and support to those we meet during our daily lives.

I am constantly puzzled as to why anyone should want suffering of any kind to continue in the world. Why would anyone choose war, pain, fear and anguish over peace, love, comfort and happiness? We can have the latter just as easy as we can have the former. I had one of my moments of inspiration the other day. I was thinking about all the badness that goes on in the world and trying to understand where it comes from. I’d say it mostly comes from greed and selfishness. That’s why countries fight each other, why arguments start, why people steal from others. Then I tried to think of the solution. That’s when it came to me. It’s so simple and here it is. Just be nice. How difficult is that? We all have the choice of being nasty or nice. Nobody can force us to be mean, lying, violent or greedy. If everyone just behaved in the way that they would like others to treat them, we’d have it cracked in no time. There are enough resources in the world for everyone to have a decent life, if governments and world leaders co-operated and looked after each other.

OK I’m deluded if I think I’ve solved the world’s problems here but it really could be that simple if only everyone could embrace the principle. That’s the problem though. For some reason, many people seem incapable. Well here’s my slant on what we can do. Firstly, try to embrace those nice principles ourselves as much as we can. There are many good people out there who already do. In fact I believe there are more forces for good than bad but unfortunately, many of the people in positions of power don’t practise it enough. We can always do a bit more though can’t we.

Secondly, have a little courage and empower yourself – make your personal world one you can enjoy. Don’t be afraid to be yourself, follow your dreams, talk to a stranger, put a coin in a busker’s hat, sing out loud, say sorry when you know you’re wrong. Take time to visit an old friend or make new ones, take up a new hobby or learn a new skill, grow some fruit or flowers, or just sit quietly and listen to the birds sing and feel the sun on your face. Don’t be afraid to try something new because you think you’ll be no good at it or someone will disapprove. I can’t remember which rock star said ‘no-one gets out of here alive’ but it’s a great line and also true. The point I’m making is - it’s these small things that add quality to our lives and to those of others. The warmongers and governments can’t take those away from us. This is the world we can create for ourselves whenever we wish to.

Sorry for the rant. It started out as a short post to wish you the best for the new year but I got carried away. Take care, have fun.