The end of an year, and the beginning of a new often brings together a mixed bag of feelings. There’s an anticipation, and a bit of an anxiety; a few regrets, also a new sense of optimism; a bit of looking back and reminiscing, plenty of looking forward and refocussing. And all of these come into much sharper contrast in this covid continuum that we have been experiencing over the last year and three quarters.
At the outset, here’s wishing everyone the best of 2022, may it usher in greater prosperity, progress, and deliver on all the promises we hold so dear to our hearts.
Bidding goodbye to 2021 for many will be a relief, we stepped into 2021 with much hope but also with a lot of unknowns. We were also beginning to see light at the end of the covid tunnel, while hoping the vaccines were here to put the pandemic to rest, for good. And yet it didn’t quite go to plan, did it? New waves, and new variants, travel restrictions and lockdowns – somehow covid in 2021 kind of hit harder, and despite vaccination mandates & rollouts, we never quite made it out of the woods and going into 2022, adapting to the new normal is the buzz word.
Instead of outrightly fighting away the scourge of covid, I suppose all of us have learnt or are learning to live with it. As new and varied variants emerge, some escaping the vaccine net, we realise that the pandemic cannot be simply wished away – it ought to run its course, and it will.
Having begun 2020 in absolute jubilation, and 2021 in quiet anticipation, we stand at the precipice of 2022 with cautious expectation. With over 20 months of the pandemic behind us, we have more or less learnt to accept the new reality. So what does 2022 have in store for us? Honestly, it will take a brave person to say that he/she can predict with any degree of certainty. However, what we ought to know is not what is to come, but how we must be ourselves.
As the pandemic stretches our resources and resolve, a greater sense of empathy and acceptance is the acute need of the hour. Individually, we all need to have by now learnt how fragile life can be, and how much we need each other. If anything, the last two years ought to have taught us the importance of living in the present and knowing wealth, science, technology, and the like can never truly give us certainty of life.
Thus, as we enter a brand new year, may we do so with grace and with affection. To savor what we have and share what we can! To be frugal, and to find contentment.
Have the best of year ahead! And may God be with you every single moment of 2022!
