Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Sadness over year gone by, joy of ushering in New Year

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We build lives, careers and homes, building memories until the ones who build them are no more, leaving others with fond moments to recollect…. memories to pick from not knowing what to keep and let go, just like when we shift to another house. A house is only a building unless the people who reside in it make it a home.


And we are going to do exactly that in a few more days by ushering in the New Year, leaving behind the happenings, thoughts and feelings experienced in 2018.


In a few years’ time, we might forget most of the moments we experienced this year and even the faces we came across. But a fragrance or a colour might bring back these memories somewhere in our lives.


Memory can be a blessing or a difficulty. If memories are painful, then we would look for every opportunity to forget it. However, one would come across many obstacles to do so. But if it is something so painful which almost everyone goes through in life at some point, then you might have noticed how miraculously forgetting becomes a healing agent.


Yet, there is nothing as painful as a loved one forgetting the face of family members and friends as in the case of dementia. To feel as if you are alone with all your loved ones gone somewhere else must be painful indeed.


Here we are to mark another year entering our lives. Almost the whole world celebrates together even if there is a prevalence of lunar calendar in the culture of nations.


There is an element of sadness in bidding goodbye to a year gone by and at the same time joy in ushering in a New Year. That is probably because we are going to miss some of the moments as well as the fact that time never repeats just like opportunity never knocks twice.


The joy we experience is of course the purity of hope. In other words, it an opportunity of 365 days. Almost 365 opportunities imply we can make changes we know we need to make in order to take a new direction in life.


Each day is a promise of newness. It is not just about trial and error but a chance to make corrections and try again.


It is not about falling, but it is everything about getting up to stand straight and take the first step forward. It is about knowing you ‘can’ and you ‘will’. Often, we know we can, but it is the will that takes time.


Maybe it is because our confidence has been affected or destroyed, but it is time to wake up to realise we can be the person we want to be. Here too, we do not realise that we have been all along trying to be what others want us to be, not realising our true calling or potential.


It is never too late, but why waste time not knowing the true self and the objective of life. Next week, we are walking into 2019 whether we like it or not.


Time never waits for everyone. It was a favourite line with my school teacher and the words keep ringing in the ears. Time is to be celebrated just like age. Calendars tell us which day we are on, but we hardly think of how much we have achieved in our personal calendar.


So it is not about making the to-do list, but about knowing oneself first and then taking the path forward.


So Season’s greetings and let’s move forward.


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