Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Another year ends. My thoughts on 2014 and the New Year.

Here we are at the end of another year. In some ways the past 365 days have flown by, in other ways it seems to have crawled by as slow as molasses. It has been a year of fun, joy, sadness, frustration and loss. Pretty much as it should be I guess. It is rare to have the opportunity to have the "perfect year" though just once I would like to see what it is like

We did some fun things this past year like drove to the Arctic Circle, visited London, had some wonderful visitors in Stockholm and a trip back to Ottawa to catch up with friends there. It was also the year my Dad passed away and my family ceased to tolerate each other. We left Stockholm and said goodbye to our friends there for the what was then unknown life in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Israel thus far has not been without its challenges, but at the end of the day when I look at the complaints I have they pale in comparison to the problems of many others. Leela Alcorn, the transgender teen who took her own life this week by walking into traffic because of being rejected by her ultra-conservative religious parents, african-american teens who need instruction from parents on how to behave when, not if they are stopped by a police officer to ensure their safety and in some cases stay alive, the continued persecution of the LGBTQ community in countries all over the world for fighting to love who their biology deems correct, refugees of wars and conflicts all over the globe who are caught in the middle of of idealistic and religions zealotry.

For my friends and my family I wish you all comfort and peace in 2015. I hope that this year in the world more problems get solved than created. I wish that people could take a moment to look outside their own lives and comfort zones to look at what is happening around them and take action to make it better. Volunteer, make donations to charities and organizations that you believe in. Start seeing the homeless and the hungry on the street and stop looking through them. I know it is idealistic, but if we all took just a little bit better care of each other the world would be a much better place indeed.

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