I came across the Banyan fig tree on one of my trips last year. It stands in the backyard of the Vista restaurant in Miami Vista Miami, one of the culinary highlights during my trip and absolutely recommendable.
Attracted by the splendour of the tree, which is around 20 metres high, the intertwined branches reaching up to the sky as an extension of the short trunk, I was drawn in by the countless colourful ribbons. I approached it and discovered that each one of these ribbons carried a handwritten message. “Make a wish” was written on a small plaque. And I did what hundreds of people had done before me and wrote my personal wish on a pink ribbon, believing that it would come true when the time was right.
7.7 billion people live on this earth. I cannot estimate how many wishes have been sent to the universe, God or whoever in the last 24 hours, depending on where you are. I wish all people on this earth that their heart’s desires come true. I wish all people on this planet love, health and peace!
“What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year.”
Vern McLellan.
Or in good German “What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year”.
What does that mean now? We are to a large extent the makers of our own happiness. Our thoughts determine our feelings, which become our actions, which in turn become our habits. Ultimately, the responsibility lies with ourselves.
We, (and by that I mean the world’s population in our latitudes who are not exposed to life-threatening situations) live in a world where we have unlimited choices. A blessing and a curse at the same time. Today’s speed, availability, interchangeability, instant gratification of needs present us with different challenges than all the generations before us. We have countless friends on all sorts of social media platforms and yet many of us feel lonelier than ever before. We have never been more efficient at time management. Convenience solutions like dishwashers, smartphones, ready-made meals, digitalisation, etc. should theoretically make our lives easier and save us time. Paradoxically, we feel lonelier and more time deprived than ever before. The world’s population is growing relentlessly – against this stands technological progress, which efficiently and profitably requires less labour and presents us with new challenges. These are the facts.
Now it is time to find out what I can change in my “small, big world”. Maybe these three questions will help you:
What do I like to do?
What am I really good at?
What do I want?
I believe it is time for each individual to deal with these questions and thus take responsibility for his or her life. This means first and foremost being honest with ourselves, choosing the closest environment that promotes our strengths and gives us loving and benevolent feedback. It also means confronting ourselves with our strengths and weaknesses so that we can grow. Discover yourself, your desires/needs, your way of living that is right for you. No one on this earth knows you better than you do. And if you don’t yet, then get to know yourself. When you begin to walk the path that is right for you and to recognise who you are and what is really good for you, it may be difficult at first. It means moving out of your personal, supposed comfort zone, encountering resistance and discovering yourself anew. It’s not a pony farm – not by a long shot.
There are 7.7 billion people on this earth. Countless ways to get one step closer to personal happiness every day. Admittedly, life presents us with new challenges again and again. Events that take our minds away, challenge us, confront us with the finiteness of life and simply hurt us. I believe there is only one thing to do here, to give in to the feelings that are there at the moment and to give them space and time.
“The darkest hour is always before sunrise” says a Chinese proverb. I am focusing my attention here on the hour, because it is passing.
I wish you all to walk the path that suits you. I wish you to come a little closer to your dreams every day. I wish you strength, courage and love to play the leading role in your life. I wish you to realise that EVERYTHING that is at the moment is good as it is and that every crisis ultimately holds an opportunity – even if it feels bad at the moment.
I wish you to make the really important decisions in your life yourself and not to delegate them. I wish you to find a path that is right for you in the long term, to put the illusion of the “magic pill” to rest and to strive for solutions that do not merely combat the symptoms in the short term. It is in your hands, every day!
With love and to a happy new decade yours
Alex