The Year Ahead

That Little Voice

The new year dawned with skies ablaze with shades of rosy pinks, Daylily yellows, celery greens blending with the baby blues of Hydrangeas, mixed with orange of Marigolds highlighting the stunning purple of Lavender.

This plethora of morning colors takes your mind to a place of joy, hope, miracles, and of peace.

As I face the year ahead, I wonder if I can look at the early sky each day and hold onto the softness, the brightness, the calm, the optimism I feel as I gaze upward.

I can become stuck in a swamp of worry, hopelessness, and despair listening to news of violence around the world, hatred, and divisive rhetoric. How do I grasp and hold on to hope when I think ‘hope may not be warranted at this point’?

But how many times did our ancestors feel hope for the future may be an idle dream, yet were rewarded to see the world right itself, and discover hope was real.

We head into this new year perhaps with a list of questions we ‘hope’ to see resolved. Will peace come to our troubled earth? Will starving and displaced people find shelter and care? Will sympathy, sharing, acceptance, and love touch more hearts this year?

I cannot know if all these questions will be answered, but I can hope people around the world see the desperate needs and are moved to act.

I hope this new year brings an awakening to us all that each individual is worthy, each individual is deserving, and all individuals are equal.

I hope fear, hate and violence are replaced with understanding, love, humor, and a belief that hope for a better tomorrow lives within each of us. And when we see the sunset of this year’s end, we see skies vibrating with radiant colors of hopes fulfilled.