2015.
A year of immense joy, and intense ache, is counting down its last days, and hours….
In its last 60 days alone, global events have shown how inseparably interconnected our world has become. As but one example, in the first days of November, the eyes and hearts of the world were focused on Paris as terror eclipsed the city of light’s deep, passionate, persistent glow. One night, one tragic night, connected the world through tragedy, through tears, through hope for a way forward in unity and peace.
One month later, the world once again turns to Paris as the world comes together once more to craft a historic accord to protect our world from the man-made, manufacturing-based, undeniable and inescapable forces of Climate Change.
Just one city, as one small example, of how our world has been so deeply grounded in the reality of one. To move forward, to look to 2016 with a sense of separateness, a sentiment of ‘I” rather than “we“, would cost out world exactly what it needs to survive the challenges of the day: our coming together as one.
Differences will, and do, exist. Different ways of thinking, of living, of dreaming. But differences need not divide. Quite the contrary. It is these differences that can in fact allow us to learn, to appreciate, to respect, to connect, as one fabric that wraps around the globe. One fabric seeking to stay strong by allowing each thread to weave its way through the collective, part of the whole, keeping all strong. For to pull out one thread would to be to weaken the fabric, putting all at risk….
As the new year nears, may this be a time at which we look around and see, with deep appreciation, how dearly we need one another. Call it ‘Ubuntu‘. Call it ‘harmony‘. Call it ‘humanity‘. Whatever it is, it is what keeps our world turning, our lives learning, our spirits feeling.
It is what makes us one – one by one by one.
Happy, truly happy, blessed 2016.
Copyright: ANITA MENDIRATTA 2015