Thought for the Week

IT’S A FUNNY sort of time, this time between Christmas and New Year.

I love Christmas but don’t care much for New Year.

As I wait for ‘the bells,’ like many I think of the folk who are no longer with us and of the sadness that brings.

Each year someone will say: ‘Well I just hope this next year is better.’

Many will be glad to put this year behind them, but others will look back with joy and happiness at things that happened this year.

Across the world people will gather in town squares and villages. Fireworks will cascade into the air hanging between one year and the next.

Champagne will fizz and fill the space that takes us from this year to another and the countdown will begin.

The seconds ebb away like our breath on the cold night air and a new year will begin on the strike of midnight.

In the crowd, each is alone with her or his own thoughts and dreams.

In his poem: ‘To the New Year,’ the poet W.S. Merwin invites us to bring:

‘Our knowledge such as it is and our hopes such as they are invisible before us untouched and still possible.’

Perhaps at midnight we might reflect on what we would like to do in this year that is knocking on the door of life.

It might be an opportunity to follow a dream, finish some unfinished business, take more time with our loved ones or make a commitment to do something that will make our own wee corner of the world better.

Whatever your dream, I wish you peace, and that your untouched hopes will become possible in the year ahead.