I’ve never before heard so many people, at the end of a year, say – Good Riddance 2015! It can only get better. I hear it from my Zambian friends, battling with disease, drought, death and a struggling economy. I hear it from our friends in our Western World, who battle health issues, heartache and joblessness. Definitely the global news was not good in 2015 – war, refugee crisis, terror acts that have made us realize we are more vulnerable than we thought. There are parts of my own 2015 experience that often threatened to darken the whole year.
One large German newspaper, “Die Zeit”, dedicated the global news portion of its last 2015 issue to only good news. A reporter tells of an intimate meeting with a refugee boy that lit up his day. A young couple goes out for supper at the clubhouse where the terror acts of Paris were acted out, to help themselves fight fear. More children are being born again in Europe.
When I forget what good things happened in 2015, I check out my ‘pictures’ folder. Mostly I only take pictures of good times. There are biking trips with my husband through French lavender fields and up the steep hills of the Italian coastline. Pictures of our four-year-old twin grandsons on Granddad’s knee, or playing with Lego on my bed, which is the Tiger cave. I’m the mother Tiger, they are the Daddy and the baby Tiger. We growl and hunt and sleep. Pictures of family times – so many, I am so very fortunate to have wonderful family on both sides.
2016 started dark and damp, with fog swelling around the buildings, threatening to creep into my heart. Good thing there are Christmas tree lights! Last night we took in a New Year’s brassband concert in the beautiful St. Moritz Church in the hills above Hallau. 80 top class musicians played a wide array of tunes, from classic to folk. Some tunes were accompanied by Lisa Stoll, the crowned Swiss alphorn player. It was a phenomenal evening. I am left with the impressions of the last piece – a burst of sound so vibrant, so joyful. What a way to start the year!
And that’s what 2016 will probably be about – there will be dark days, and great bursts of joy. May we take note of the joy, and let it swell in our hearts.