"Have you made your new year's resolutions yet?" said the gentle ‘Séimí an Droichid’ to myself, down in the snug of the "Smugairle Róin", on that fateful night, New Year's Eve, as he took a nice good sip of the hard stuff from the glass he had carefully placed, on a small table, in front of him.

I realized, right away, that he wanted to give me his opinions on that same subject, and since I had nothing better to do at the time, I tried to elicit those opinions from him.

"Divil a resolution or bit of a resolution I’ve made, Séimí, but listen, have you made any resolutions yet for this new year which is racing towards us right now?"

Prayers instead of Resolutions

“Well! I have to admit to you, that I myself have given up on those same new year's resolutions, for some years now, as I paid little attention to them after they were made, but you know, I have found a new custom with it to fill that gap for me.”

"And what is that, Séimí?"

"I call them New Year's prayers, as instead of putting the burden of those resolutions on myself, I pick out a few things, which I would to see accomplished, during the new year."

"Fantastic altogether, and what prayers have you picked for this year, 2024."

"I have already chosen a donkey's load of prayers, but I don't want to lay them all before you, right now, but I will give you a few now."

"Go on, or I'd love to hear some of them."

Peace on Earth

First of all, I would like to see an end, during this year, to killing, mugging, violence, rape of all kinds, abuse, disorder and brutality of all kinds, and that people would once again return to peace, charity, and neighborliness. If such a thing were to be done, what difference would it make in the life of the common man? Yes, and really, can't it be said, wouldn't that just be a return to the laws that are embedded in our very nature?”

"Well, that prayer is not small or insignificant, Séimí, and because of that, you probably don't have any more for this year?"

Remember those on the edge

"I will lay before you only one more prayer, and that is that special attention be paid to those who are on the edge. What I mean here is those people who came to this country in search of work, or asylum - that they should be given space and heard during this year, in such a way that we can accept the majority of them as members of our community, instead of looking at them as foreigners who have no right to come among us. They are human beings and they are neighbors that we have yet to really get to know. I would also like to include a few others here and they are the travelers, the majority of whom we have marginalized for many years, and those who sleep outside, on the side of our streets, or on the side of our roads.

I would say now that I have said enough, for this round, but rest assured that I will have more to say on this subject, during the year 2024!”

Food for Thought

After my lovely Séimi had said "God bless you" with the bottom of his glass, he put it back on that table, bade me farewell, and went out the door himself. I have to say that it left me with food for thought and I have to say that I hope that Séimí's prayers will come true during the year, even partially!

My own reflections

Séimí speaks out with neither fear nor timidity, and I respect him for that. My new year's resolution is to express my opinions more directly, especially in my writings. That's very important today, with all kinds of rumors going around on the internet and social media. We have seen and still see the negative impact of falsehood on our society, as it is used by extremists and hostile countries, whose aim is to destabilize our government. My prayer for this year is that we all do our best to get rid of falsehood this year, and also not to spread it. I will have more to say on this subject before long!

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