New Beginnings

At the beginning of each year, I prowl bookstores looking for devotionals, a new journal, and books to help me mentally prepare for the year ahead. I have been doing this for the past 10 years or so and it has become somewhat of a ritual ­– one I look forward to each year.

All years begin the same: I thank God for the previous year's successes and tribulations. I write in great detail what I want from the new year. I go as far as describing earrings I want to buy that year in the most elaborate detail, lol. But 2020 was a little different.

While I was thankful for the blessings of the past year, I employed a new method. I thanked God for the year ahead, I thanked him in great detail for the things I hoped for but wrote them as having experienced them already. I cannot describe how powerful that exercise was. I hit the ground running, had never been bolder and found that certain doors in my life opened up with so much ease. I wondered where this anointing all came from. Remember what they say about the power of the tongue? It is true. Life and death are indeed in the tongue. 

You might be wondering why I am telling you all of this. We are in the midst of a pandemic and no one knows what tomorrow holds nor brings. I want us to see this as a chance to reset and regroup. Maybe you might have started this year anxious, uncertain. Or maybe you might have been nonchalant about it.

But here lies an opportunity to dream a brand-new dream, to set new goals, rebuild friendships that might have fallen through the cracks and most importantly, an opportunity to reconnect with yourself. Here is an opportunity to redo it all over again.

We all have an opportunity to do things right this time. We have an opportunity to dream dreams that include others, an opportunity to be impactful in the lives of those less fortunate than us. We have seen that if one is affected, so are we. The impact doesn’t have to be some larger than life act, but it could be a kind word to a stranger. A message of affirmation to a sister known or unknown to you. It is being helpful and kind.

Here lies a new beginning for us all. May we see it like that!

 

By Makori Mosiuoa

Edited: Pearl Boshomane Tsotetsi