Hope in 2021

This year has come to an end.

It barely seems to have started — there were no movements. We stayed indoors the whole year. The otters disappeared from the waterfront in front of our home just as the planes seem to have disappeared from the skies. I do not like being sad over anything. 

Much that is good has happened to me and mine though we have not been left unscarred by the deadly virus. The sadness of mankind tinges our existence. We live on an island but we cannot live in a bubble. The world stretches out its grief to us, its terror to us in pandemic proportions. Does the bug of sadness bite us? It does. 

Honestly from my heart it is difficult to celebrate against the misery that seems to have brought many to a halt. The misery of disease, death coupled with the inability to touch physically another human. It is all terrifying. Almost as if Asimov’s vision of Solaria is coming to life. And then there are wars over boundaries, hatred, anguish and anger. A very bleak scenario if we start listing, even if some of the issues have started moving towards  more hopeful outcomes with vaccines and the turn of world events.

Darkness is deepest just before dawn wipes away the blackness with its dappled touch. Maybe the rays of the new sunrise of the first day of the New Year will herald better times. 

I look outside my window at the clear skies, the sunshine and the golden orioles flying; the parakeets chattering and moving in flocks from tree to tree by the quietly flowing river and I feel maybe things will fall into place. Not in the way we knew it but in a new way. 

Maybe it is time for a fresh start, a new world, a new dawn and a new year. With that I wish you all a smoother journey in the New Year towards a happier world. 

Happy New Year !

A whole new world

A dazzling place I never knew

These lyrics from Disney’s song in Aladdin highlight the beauty and wonder of our lovely green planet which changes with the passage of time. To keep discovering and rediscovering it would be our privilege. To cherish it and enjoy it would be a joy, especially with one’s loved ones and friends. But, reviewing this last decade makes one wonder — are we doing that? Why have we lost ourselves in all kinds of conflicts, including conflicts with nature and perhaps amongst the greatest creation of nature — humankind?

We have had a list of controversial leaders, especially those who denied the reality of climate change and led to worldwide protests from adults and children and those who closed doors to other humans seeking shelter and survival on the basis of borders drawn by mankind. It was also a decade when Yuval Noah Harari saw history as borderless and traced the tribal instincts of our race. Man moved towards making unmanned vehicles and flying to Mars for a holiday.

It has also been a decade that sadly saw violation of women to an unprecedented degree… and yet, I feel, there is a light. Women are learning to give voice and men join them in protesting the violence and rage. They function as humans together… against unfair laws and violence. Harari spoke of how tyranny and communism had been replaced by liberalism — I do not understand isms but I do know that after a thunderstorm, one sees rainbows and clear skies. I would presume the turbulence we see now is the thunderstorm. And after this, there will be a rainbow and a whole new world — a dazzling place!

Let  us welcome 2020 into our midst with hope for a  happy new year and a fabulous new decade!