Welcome

In the middle of huge fanfare and shows and lights and fireworks, the calendar turned page and a year went to eternal sleep under the sheets of history. The folding of the pages always has the big promise hidden in it; and the promise is when one page is turned and put to rest the story continues on the next, and the next page always picks up from where the outgoing one had left at. Like a good story teller every closing chapter holds surprise, some anxiety, hope and a bang at the end urging the reader to turn the leaf and look at the next page.

So from the fireworks at Sydney to ball drop at New York and a million festivities in between; the old year ended and the new one started with a bang (or for all my friends and family from India it rather started with a Dhoom).

Last year brought many ups and downs. Many flows and ebbs witnessed from the shores and many faced head-on being in rough waters. Failures and triumphs; sorrows and joys; gains and losses; life and death all and more had been the acme of the year that went past.

But then that is what every year before that had brought with it, certainly in different proportions for each ingredient but none the less all same ingredients. Closely inspecting the ingredients of the past year and years before that; they are exactly same as that in the recipe of life. So every passing year is a small serving of life itself.

While I bid adieu to the last year; I thank almighty for a year that in spite of many ups and down was; on the whole; worthwhile. One major loss last year that is irreversible, but again there must have been some reason for that in the bigger scheme of things from God.

As I Welcome the New-year I pray for another wonderful year ahead.  Being ready for another serving of life packed in a year, with all its ups and downs and everything else; I pray that the sum total of the things stay positive and I pray for strength to accept the losses and strength to celebrate the gains. I pray for being able to give love and being worthy of getting love. I pray for being able to give back something to the world around me.  I pray for the world to become a better place for me, my family, my friends and everyone. I pray that my kids and their whole generation and the generations that follow theirs always get days and years more peaceful and more joyous than before and it keeps on getting better, starting this year.

So Welcome this year with me while I Pray that You have a Great Year.

Amen!!!!  

PS: Prayers for my friend whose family suffered a lot during Typhoon Haiyan. May your folks get all the strength they need to rebuild what was lost