Bienvenido 2019
Tomorrow, we are entering the year 2019. The new year is always great and, for Malawi, 2019 has significant value similar to that of 2014; it is an election year and we are all pregnant with anticipation of what these elections will bring. Any idea who the next Head of State will be? Let us wait and see, only a few months to go.
The year 2018 has been an interesting one and quite active; we are all basking in anticipation of the new year and its mystery. I always say the new year can be just as good as any other day or one can choose to look at it collectively. It can be any other 24 hours or it can be the beginning of another cycle which signifies a fresh start. It can be an opportunity for us to account for our time and reassess how we want to spend it. It can be time to conduct an audit of our lives and strategise on the next year of our life.
Interestingly, in my perpetual musing, it dawned on me that I had similar thoughts almost every other year the past few years as we anticipate a new year; that it feels like just a “few” months ago since we entered the last new year. Whoever says time flies knew exactly what they were talking about; times flies really fast like the legendary Peregrine Falcon. And this is why it remains important to be conscious of our time as we go through our days.
We are thankful that the great new year is here again. Just to remind each other that after every 365 days, a “new year” begins unless it is a leap year where we have 366 days before a “new year” comes in. New year is widely celebrated worldwide as it gives people an opportunity to be thankful of the number of days and years that they have spent on earth. It is like a worldwide birthday in one way or the other.
New year also gives most people the opportunity to reflect on what they have achieved in the past year or years and if they have achieved the goals they had set the previous New Years. It also gives some an excuse to justify their failures and shortcomings in the previous year or years and they “promise” to do better that year and make new resolutions they will stick to.
What is a resolution by the way? A resolution is a firm decision to do or not to do something. A resolution is set with the aim of being worked on and achieved with full action and not by word of mouth only. What is discouraging is most resolutions are set on New Years and quickly forgotten within a month or few weeks.
Come February, March, July, December, the resolutions are only just a fragment in history, gone with wind. Why is this so? I think this is so because these new year’s resolutions are a traditional cliché, the trend has gone on for so long its originality hardly stands any ground. They have become memorised steps like taking a glass of water once thirsty without stopping to think about what actually makes you thirsty.
However, we should not only wait till new year to make resolutions or work on the resolutions we have set. Every day should be a day to make resolutions, to question our resolutions, to make a quality assurance evaluation on our resolutions. As we go through the year, we should always have our set goals at the back of our minds; every minute that ticks is an opportunity to further those goals.
As we enter 2019, ask yourself what you have achieved in your personal, spiritual, social and professional goals and also ask yourself what baggage you are carrying that you need not to take into the year. Some of us have kept grudges for years; maybe time has come to exclude them from the next year. Set those resolutions and keep working on them every other day of the year so that by year end, you have more to celebrate about.
It has been a wonderful year and as we brace ourselves for 2019, I wish you a prosperous new year, success, joy and happiness. Bienvenido (welcome) 2019.
God Bless Malawi.
I rest my case.
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