Reflections REFLECTIONS
NO RESOLUTION What did another new year mean to any of us? While I was debating several ideas, a friend started quoting Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” [Ring out, wild bells]. So, in a car on the road to Heathrow, the words of this poem crept out of a Google page and started a conversation with the voices in my head. Ring out the old, ring in the new Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Every year we make resolutions. We promise to become bigger, brighter, new-improved versions of ourselves. We do this because somewhere we believe that these 5.0 versions are going to be much happier than we are. In this great pursuit of happiness, we sometimes fail to realise that who we are is good, what we have is good. Sure, we all need to lose a few pounds, lead healthier lives and think about the environment a little more, but what about stepping back and being happy that we made it to today? Let 2017 be the year with no resolutions, a year that we love ourselves a little bit more. A year of “warm tea and old friendships”, “new page-turners and relaxing holidays”. Let 2017 be the year that we stand alone without beliefs, knowing that the only truth in our lives is …that we are complete. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times; Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes But ring the fuller minstrel in. As a generation, we are creating a world where our social presence seems to define who we are. We don’t enjoy a holiday unless every moment is instagrammed, twittered, liked and commented on.