The last days, the last hours, and soon the year is done. Another year is gone. A new canvas is being unfolded as one, covered in colours, is ready to be rolled up.
In the midst of year-end busyness it is so, so easy for these last days, last hours, to fly past – a busy blur of festive season meetings and greetings…and eatings. Friends, families, feasts, fun and celebration of good fortune overwhelm calm and quiet.
Balance is easily & happily thrown out.
To enter into a new year all abuzz has its benefits: a bounce in one’s step a positive, joyful way to enter the year anew. Through the temptation to do so, this is also the perfect, absolutely perfect, time to pause, be quiet, be inward, be still.
But still, finding the right place to be still, not physically but in one’s head and heart, can be so challenging. Which is why, as happens when the universe wishes to have it, the gift of timeous messengers of precious messages, is inspiring a whispered prayer of thanks for one of 2019’s finest films – one of the most touching prompts for this invaluable pause: Netflix’s “THE TWO POPES”
A masterful, intimate look into time shared between two of the world’s most powerful messengers of faith, in a brief period of transition at a time when our shared world is in a period of prolonged challenge of faith, focus and fortitude, this film cannot but provoke one’s own thoughts regarding personal beliefs. And the actions they take as a result.
Importantly, it speaks to the potential presence and influence of a greater force blowing from behind, pushing one forward, even when one is uncertain of what lies ahead and why they should head in the direction of such powerful winds.
While focused on two popes, in so many ways THE TWO POPES is not about the church. Instead, it is about what one pursues, and why. Hence its perfect timing. Hence the feeling of exhale when its central characters, its text, releases tears that feel so right in falling, right now, as in no time at all today, 2019, will turn to tomorrow, 2020+.
“You know the hardest thing is to listen. To hear his voice. God’s voice”
Whatever one’s religion, however one looks for answers, at this time of year it is invaluable to stop and simply ask the questions:
- What is one’s predisposition: Idealism? Realism? Optimism? Pessimism? And how does this impact one’s sense of place in the world, here and now?
- What does one feel to be one’s purpose? And how is this served?
- What hope does one hold for the future right ahead of us? And how will this lens through which one views the world impact how one chooses to live in the world?
Overly-analytical? Perhaps. But when is pausing to question purpose ever a bad thing?
So valuable are these questions, always. And yet so often there is so little time to honour them. Especially now, when it feels as though in so many places, policies, positions and principles, we as a global community are failing one another.
Deeply stirring in this regard, in the closing chapter of the film, a montage is shown of genuine 2019 crises currently impacting our world – the impact of a crisis of confidence, compassion and courage spreading across the global community – ranging from human displacement that continues to unnaturally devastate lives and livelihoods across the globe, to Mother Nature’s fury unleashed across and destroying our natural world. In hushed words yet with rasor sharpness, words of truth are then spoken by His Holiness Pope Francis as he made clear that care, concern and a call to action are not for the few in public office – it is all of us who must decide if one is to stand up and step forward, or walk away: “When no one is to blame, everyone is to blame”
As the final hours of 2019 unfold, may your mind and heart find a quiet moment to whisper a quiet prayer of clarity, hope and faith in all that is ahead in 2020, infusing your heart with a feeling of centeredness and confidence. And may you feel loved.
HNY2020. x
Copyright: ANITA MENDIRATTA 2019