Happy New Year!

As one decade ends and a new one begins, my heart is flooded with emotions. The past year, and more importantly this past decade, has been filled with many changes. There have been ups and downs, laughter and tears, joy and sadness. Looking back over the past decade I’m reminded of the ones we’ve lost along the way, but also the new additions that have joined us in this journey.

Often life feels like a maze to be navigated and ultimately one day to be solved. We learn to find our way through life, turn after turn hoping we’re heading in the right direction. Sometimes dead ends force us to turn around and head in a different direction.

The world we live in is truly a wonderful place. I’ve had the amazing opportunity to experience other cultures in different parts of the world and highly recommend anyone reading this to take the time to travel out of your own country at least once in your lifetime. The planet is vast and the people who fill it’s lands are so very unique and yet so very similar.

The internet has made the world feel smaller than it felt just ten years ago. I can get on social media, and see and talk to friends in a way that would have taken an eighteen hour flight to accomplish in the past. I can feel so close to those on the other side of the world, and yet feel so far away from the ones close at hand. I think many have used the veil of a computer or phone screen to stay hidden, to say things they are too afraid to say in person, and to at times use that safety to even be able to lash out in ways they would never do outside of a screen. In time passed when someone or something upset you, the only recourse was to get over it or to confront things face to face. The things that divide us are blown way out of proportion now-a-days simply because we allow it to be. Our focus has dimmed to the world and people in it. Maybe it’s time to take a closer look and appreciate the things we have in common rather than looking for places to disagree.

John Lennon wrote one of my favorite songs – “Imagine”. The words say how I feel a lot of the time now.

“Imagine there’s no countries.
It isn’t hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for.
And no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world.

You may say I’m a dreamer.
But I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will live as one.”

I believe one day everything that separated us in this world will be the very thing that brings us all together. So I hope this next year, and the decade to follow, is full of all the good you can imagine. I’m sure we’ll all have our ups and downs, but hopefully we can learn to live as one.

Happy New Year. Blessings to you all!

Published by Jeff

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