“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language.
And next year’s words await another voice.” (TS Eliot)
As we bid farewell to an old year and welcome 2024, we move into a space of thanksgiving, reflection, hope, possibility, and expectation. And while new year resolution may often evoke a bad press for encouraging unrealistic goals and placing unnecessary pressure, they can also be a starting point to help prioritize what is important and achievable in our ever-changing world. G.K. Chesterton so wisely reminds us: “The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose, new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a person starts afresh about things, they will certainly do nothing effective.” (A Chesterton Calendar)
Over the past year some major global setbacks crossed our path – including the after effects of COVID-19 pandemic, continued conflict and destruction of the Ukraine war, Israeli/Palestinian humanitarian crisis, with stark reminders that 25% of the world population is affected by war and conflict: Alongside this there is the triple planetary crisis – climate change, pollution and biodiversity, with COP 28 struggling to agree a way forward regarding an action plan for the use of fossil fuels. These and many other issues are shaking and challenging our international and global world. Technology today is evolving at a rapid pace, accelerating change and progress, causing nervousness at the rate of new and unknown information. Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has already received a lot of attention over the past decade. Still, it continues to be one of the emerging new technology trends because of its notable effects on how we live, work and play. Unity around our shared principles and common goals is both crucial and urgent as we journey forward during 2024.
We dare to ask, where do RNDM’s stand at this time of change and struggle?
With new technologies emerging and rapidly developing throughout our world, with the haunting environmental disasters leaving their mark, life continues with its poignant mix of experiences and emotions. We have the inner resources to consider positive aspects that help us deal with today’s global challenges and the apparent new threats in the future. With hope in our hearts, we may glean contentment and peace from Wendy Berry’s words:
“When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s life may be. I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water, and I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time, I rest in the grace of the world and am free.
Wendy Berry©2012 – The Peace of Wild Things (Penguin 2018).
Happy New Year! Athbhliain Faoi Mhaise Duit
Liz Hartigan RNDM