2024 / 2025 (JOYFUL PIECE #79)

Goodbyes and hellos…

Image by David Revoy, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. [1]

Tonight, we say goodbye to 2024. This has been a year of many challenges from a variety of perspectives and directions:

Mental. We all dealt with an inundating onslaught of fundraising messaging through every possible media. We also faced family and friends who favored candidates that we found unacceptable. The stress brought on by this avalanche of stimuli was significant.

Emotional. We (or at least I) thought that the election results would be different. To watch voters support a convicted felon and insurrectionist for POTUS was shocking. To see the US government support Netanyahu and his campaign of genocide in Gaza and Lebanon was also extremely disturbing. In a way, this election cycle will bring about change in many ways with unpredictable outcomes.

Physical. In this regard, personally we were affected, but we are all healthy at this point. Of course, at our age, some friends moved on to another world.

Spiritual. To watch the institutional churches support a convicted felon and insurrectionist POTUS candidate, who appears not to observe any of Jesus’ teachings, was very disturbing as well.

The challenges that 2024 presented were tough. The election results were upsetting beyond any of my expectations. I am not happy with the final quarter of 2024. But joy has not departed my soul. While facing the aforementioned challenges, I know that I did my best to act with integrity, in the most compassionate way possible towards others.

As I mentioned in my post of December 20, 2024, I have resolved to be aware of the throne that holds my attention. For the past ten days that throne was occupied by family. Keeping my focus on the blessings that I have received keeps me joyful. This approach has been instrumental in maintaining a good attitude in post-election weeks.

We must remember:

I cast my own shadow upon the path, because I have a lamp that has not been lighted.

—Rabindranath Tagore

The key to my joy in 2025 and beyond will depend on my resolve to pay attention to the throne of compassionate engagement. This will bolster my inner joy despite the erosive effects of adverse factors.

Keep the flame of joy lit. It increases your effectiveness.

Happy New Year!

20241230

[1] This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.