Wednesday, January 1, 2014

A New Outlook for a New Year

This is just my own food for thought as I've found that clear thinking is just as necessary and rejuvenating to the body and mind, and it's my mind that keeps me writing, and my body that allows me to stay awake long enough to do it. 

We are facing a new year and I find myself marveling at how quickly the time has passed. There are those that believe in life beyond this earth, and many of those with this belief feel that you take with you, into the next life, only knowledge and relationships. Whether or not you agree with this belief, it is to the benefit of each individual to strengthen knowledge and relationships.

Our lives, collectively as a human race, have not been that of fairy tales. There are no magic carpets, spiraling castles, and flying horses, however, many of us have conquered our own battles, slain our dragons, and discovered our own pots of gold at the end of each rainbow. If I have learned nothing else in this life, in this past year, it is that family and our relationships with others is important above all else. Also, the knowledge that we glean from our experiences, from books, work, and our adventures, should be shared and passed on to each generation. It is with our relationships and our knowledge that we become greater people and greater contributors to this life and to those we encounter. We are imperfect beings and as such we are bound to make mistakes, but we are only responsible for our own actions and our own choices. We are all of us blessed with the opportunities to enrich our lives, our families, and all of those around us.

Robert Luis Stevenson said that, “So long as we love, we serve, so long as we are loved by others, I should say that we are almost indispensable, and no man is useless while he has a friend.”

I have further discovered that each of has so many wonderful talents, so much to give others. I believe that we are each learning how to share those talents in our own ways, but I know that as we do, we will each achieve the amazing potential and greatness which exists in us all. The blessings of our lives are bountiful and never before has there been so great an opportunity as we have now to be the kind of people who make a difference.

A friend and founder of Africa Heartwood Project, a remarkable organization which aids orphans in Liberia, said that, “By being people of action, at least we have the hope to leave this world and its people better than we found it.”

It is my hope that we all leave the parts of this world we’ve touched, and the people we have encountered, better than we found them. 

Wishing you a enlightened and inspiring New Year!
-MK McClintock


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