Well now another New year has arrived, and we will all make new year resolutions and do
our best to keep them for a week or two. We will be lambasted by personalities telling us what their new year resolutions are. Various influencers will trot out their messages of positivity and ask us all to be more positive in our daily lives and dealings. They will be podcasting, twittering, and Tik Toking and doing their best to talk up the products they are promoting. We will follow their views, likes and shares while some of them will earn themselves money because of their exhortations.
I am just sick to the teeth of all these messages telling us to be positive and trying to influence the way we live.
Try telling some person begging on the street, or someone who cannot pay rent, food, or fuel bills that they should be more positive and somehow someone will wave a magic wand and a new bill free home will appear before them. Maybe we can make a new year resolution to make ourselves more aware of their plight and donate or fundraise for homeless charities.
We still have chronic overcrowding and waiting lists in our hospitals and health clinics with massive lack of resources being the order of the day. There is a cavalier approach to Covid 19 boosters, to flu and pneumonia vaccines among a certain age cohort. As a result of this we witness regular spikes in respiratory ailments and hospital facilities being strained to breaking point. Maybe we could all make a new year resolution to be more conscious of this by staying at home if we are coughing or have a bug. We should wear a mask in crowded areas and get a booster immediately if we are eligible.
We could all make a resolution to make 2023 the year of friendliness. It is so easy to smile and say hello to all the people we meet on paths and walks around Gorey. There is a tendency among some people to power walk everywhere bursting their gut going nowhere fast. They do not have time to say hello, stop and chat or observe nature when they walk in the country. Let us smile and be friendly and love the people of Gorey even more with smiles.
In the words of the `Welsh poet, W.H. Davies in his poem ‘Leisure’ he wrote “what is this life if full of care we have no time to stand and stare’ with the closing line ‘A poor life this if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare’.
Maybe we could make a resolution to give ourselves more personal time next year. Perhaps we could join a club or society or volunteer your services to some charitable organisation.
We could switch off the mobile for a time each day.
In today’s world we spend an excessive amount of time Googling. If some people have a pain in the toe or have a pimple on their face, there is a rush to the internet for a remedy. People are diagnosing all sorts of ailments on the internet which could be a dangerous habit. Maybe we can be resolute in 2023 and rely on our medical experts instead of amateur diagnosis.
There is a huge increase in the use of supplements and vitamins to the detriment of healthy eating. Maybe in 2023 we could make a resolution to go back to the 3 healthy meals a day. We could also have good healthy brisk walk in God’s own fresh air away from crowded gyms and fitness halls and personal trainers. We can all take personal responsibility and be our own personal trainers and dieticians.
Today I read in the morning papers about a new craze with manifestation coaches of Tik Tok telling me to chant “money comes easily to me, Money comes fast” while blowing cinnamon around your front door. This has clocked up 125 million views and I ask myself if the whole world is gone mad or have I gone down some bye road in the internet highway and gone astray. I must do the lotto and wrap my ticket around a cinnamon stick, wish for fast money and wait for the euros to roll. I won’t build my hopes and financial future on my cinnamon atonic ticket.
I think I will make very few new year resolutions apart from making a personal contract with myself to continue the path of life I have traversed thus far. I will try to stay healthy, exercise more, be neighbourly, patient, helpful and courteous to all I meet in my Love Gorey travels. Finally, let us hope for an end to war and unwanted destruction of countries. In 2023, as in all years past, we all want peace, health, and happiness within ourselves, in our homes, country and throughout the world. Let there be peace.
Happy new Year to you all
Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh
And to our Polish friends szczęśliwego Nowego Roku
And to our Ukranian friends among us. Z Novym Rokom!
Michael O Callaghan
31/12/2022
