My Wish For You For 2024

I wish you Hope, Faith, and Love — sounds religious, but it has nothing to do with God or religion

Before I get to my wishes for you, I wanted to share a story that led to this article. Usually, people wish each other a life without any trouble, a world filled with peace and happiness. So my wish might seem a bit odd, though, as with everything in life, it depends on how we look at it.

The last week of 2023, I spent in Killarney enjoying my holidays. I love this little town, and in the past few years, I have been coming here regularly, twice a year or so, when I need time to switch off, relax, and recharge without any adventures.

Usually, on the first morning, as soon as I wake up, I go for a hike to One Tree Hill. The best about Killarney is the endless opportunities for long walks. Every day, I spend hours walking through the hills and communities in the area. If I don’t walk, I go for pushbike rides. And I hoped this Christmas would be exactly the same. However, life is life, and it wasn’t until five days into my stay there that I finally managed to get to the top of the hill.

When I was standing there, on the top of the world, admiring the wonderful vistas, I thought to myself, “And so is life, exactly like this hike I attempted for days before I was finally able to make it. We can have the best intentions and great plans, but life will take its course.”

“We need to be patient and perseverant, adaptable and accepting, creative and determined. We have to walk step by step towards our goal, even if sometimes we will be interrupted in our attempts. There will be times when our mind will tell us we are not good enough or ‘too old for that’. Sometimes, we will need to take a detour; other times, we will need to hold back for a while until a more suitable time comes, and sometimes, we will need to rest. Rest is part of the journey, too.”

Usually, I’m full of energy, but after the busy year and all the adventures of the last few months, I was tired and needed rest. Every day, I was awake from around 5 am, but reading in bed was much more appealing than jumping out of bed and going hiking (which I did in the past).

The weather wasn’t supportive either. It was hot and muggy. Unexpected treacherous storms, with strong winds and heavy rain, could hit at any time. We got a few of these storms, not as bad as on the coast, but still bad enough. I was glad my car and caravan didn’t get damaged. The roads turned into creeks or were muddy and difficult to pass.

I started to think I was getting too old for my life filled with hikes and adventures. However, deep inside of me, the old cheerful spirit was still simmering and wanting to get out. The previous day, late afternoon, I walked towards the hill, and I even got to the gate, so 3/4 of the way, when dark clouds covered the firmament, forcing me to go back.

This incident also made me think how important it is in life to enjoy our journey. We can put all the effort into achieving our goal, but nothing is guaranteed. Unexpected life events can stop us from reaching our destination. As long as we enjoy the journey, nothing is wasted. In the worst case, we will say, “Oh well, this was fun! Worth to do it again; I will try again”. Or even if we don’t try again, even if we choose a new path and destination in our lives, we will be left with wonderful memories. There won’t be any regrets.

The muddy way up the hill will be a challenge, but it will also have a beautiful vista, which we need to appreciate. We will miss life if we only look down at the muddy path. In the hard work that we do every day, there are tiny, beautiful moments that we need to learn to cherish. The beauty of life lies in these tiny moments.

If we force ourselves to do something against our will, if we are forced to follow the path others chose for us, if we try to satisfy the world going against our heart, then… we will end up disappointed and bitter, filled with regrets.

And so, when I finally made it to the top of the hill, admired the vistas, and thought about life, it came to me that the most important in life is… A positive outlook on life, having the courage to pursue our dreams, and having a heart filled with patience, understanding, and kindness. And this love starts with self-love.

This is another way of saying all I wish you is Hope, Courage, and Love.

I wish you Hope — Learn to see the silver lining in every situation and have a positive outlook on life

Someone told me recently — “For some people, people like you, it’s easier to be positive and see the silver lining in everything. But I’m not one of those people”.

No, it’s not easy for anyone. I mean, nobody is born with the ability to face the adversities of life with a smile on their face. Seeing the light in the darkness is a skill that needs to be learned through practice. Like with everything in life, the more we practice, the better we become at it. The more adversities we overcome, the easier it becomes.

It doesn’t come easy to anyone; some people are just more determined to go through the training and not give up. Some people love life too much to waste it.

Most of us are trained in negativity from the time we are born. The challenge is changing it and training ourselves in a positive outlook. Whatever happens to us, we need to try to find one reason why it’s not as bad as it could be. As my great-grandma used to say, “It’s never as bad that it couldn’t be worse, so always be grateful”. This is what helped me when I started training myself.

Always have hope, because without hope we have nothing; we will lose our life…

I wish you Faith — Have the courage to pursue your dreams

The biggest regret most people have towards the end of their lives is not pursuing their dreams and not living the life they want to live. So many people strive to “be normal”, not realizing their uniqueness is their strength and beauty. They follow the path others choose for them and ensure they satisfy the needs and wants of all those surrounding them.

They get discouraged by those who laugh at them and tell them, “You are not good enough; you will never achieve your dream”, not realizing that only those who lack self-confidence and courage will diminish others and their dreams. They feel threatened by those who might succeed and, therefore, push them down.

If you have a dream, just go for it. Believe in yourself, put your heart and your soul into your dream, work hard, and you will be successful. You might not achieve all your dreams and goals; nothing in life is ever guaranteed, but you will surely be happy with your life, and that’s success.

So, have faith, believe in yourself, and have the courage to pursue your dreams. That’s the only way to a fulfilling life.

I wish you Love — Above all learn to Love Yourself

We all long for love, we want a world filled with peace and kindness, and we all long for love; we want a world filled with peace and kindness and living in harmony with others. Yet how many of us genuinely love themselves? If we don’t love ourselves, nobody will truly love us. How can others respect and value us when we disrespect and do not value ourselves when we don’t know our worth?

If we don’t love ourselves, we can’t love others. When I wrote an article about this, there were plenty of people telling me that I was wrong and didn’t understand love. I still stand by what I said: we can’t love others without loving ourselves.

Without loving ourselves, we will desperately seek the love we miss in the outside world. We will get involved in disrespectful relationships based on attachment and codependency. We will become victims of neglect and abuse and get our hearts broken over and over again. Even if we find the perfect partner, they won’t be able to carry us through life. They happily will give us a helpful hand, but we need to walk on out two feet.

Without loving ourselves, we can’t love the world. We just become victims of being used and abused. Many see kindness and empathy as weaknesses because “kind people are easy to get used to and abused”. No, that’s not true; people who don’t love themselves are getting used and abused. People who love themselves understand the boundary between being kind to others and letting others use and abuse them. Kindness is strength and power as long as we love ourselves.

Do you love yourself? Do you enjoy time alone, where there is nothing but silence and the whisper of your thoughts? Can you be with your thoughts one-on-one without judging yourself and beating yourself up for making mistakes? If not, then I wish you to learn to love yourself. Only when you love yourself can you love others and the world, with all its imperfections. Only then can you start building a better world filled with peace and kindness.

So, once again, all I wish you for this year is Hope, Faith, and Love. It is all you need.

And here are a couple of other articles from the great DEP publication.

Kerrie Gutierrez-Diaz talks about the dark sides of addiction, and how some people can get trapped in the hopeless world of an addict. Though I had never had issues with substance abuse (I don’t like alcohol so I don’t even drink), I saw many people who became victims, and therefore I believe that awareness about the dangers is important.

Libby Shively McAvoy in her article talks about the importance of communicating correctly with our partner. I know the magic of the right communication!

✍ — Published by Dr. Gabriella Korosi, at Dancing Elephant Press. Click here for guidelines to post.