A year gone by – one coming up

A year gone by – one coming up

Have you loved, laughed and wept or have you remained untouched by life? In the year gone by have you let life bypass you? Have you let the joy of your being find expression or have you found reasons to excuse yourself? Have you let the love in your heart warm this world or have you found reasonable excuse to languish in frown? Did you find something wonderful to say of all around you or have you become the judgment day damnation?
Years shall go by regardless of whether you are rich or poor, man or woman, young or old. It is one thing that is common for all. We have gone through a year of turmoil, worry, fear, failure and discomfort. We saw illness spread worldwide, carrying forth from a previous time. There have been rare moments of joy and happiness too. There have been questions asked of you and answers sought. A year that may well go down in history as one of damnation. And there was not much we could do about it.
But there were a few things we could have done differently. We had set forth together on many a journey, yet chose to hide behind the excuse of a global illness. We let the few carry burdens that ought to have been collective responsibility. We did offer our faces for the pictures and made sure we were seen in the right crowds. Yet we hid, even from our own selves the fact that we were never ever there, when push came to shove and let them that worked, do it by themselves. Without moving a finger we put your finger on the right buttons and won what we wanted without effort. Sometime the guy looking back at us from the mirror looked too deeply into our own, to our own discomfiture.
Onward into another year. Promises galore, plans by the dozen and multiplying by the hour. Awareness that all said and done, there will be more pictures to be taken. The choice now is ours. Do we earn it or do we just steal it. There is much that needs doing. With the knowledge in our hearts that the time is granted us to do things, not just to take it all for nothing, we now need to make the decision – to do or not to do. With the awareness that all is given so that some may be shared, it is for us to choose to give or keep. With voices within us urging us to do the right thing, it is for us to decide whether to listen or not.
Suffice it to say that this new opportunity that God has given us in the form of a brand new year, we are the maker or breakers of the year, just around the corner. We will give meaning to the moments ahead and create a new world, for the better or worse.
It is we who decide.