Wishing for 2020

Reflections of a fifty-year-old girl

When I’m imagining next year As if I’m gliding high through the sky With a watchful and downward eye Looking at everything from a bird’s-eye view

I see people walking past each other But they do not really look at one another no more They greet each other in the hustle and bustle As if nothing can really fascinate anymore

No more time to invest in the other To listen to another and to learn from each other Just a conversation or a small gesture Because that’s how simple we can help someone else

There is not a second left to relax or get bored The push of social media, overwhelming messages and images To the extent that it hardly leaves you time to recuperate Or, like before, to just ponder and philosophize

Oh, then I’m staring with my eagle’s eye For the meaning and the truth of life Searching for the message of tomorrow I realise, to the best of my ability, I will create it myself

The beauty of life when doubt arrives Is that light rays shine upon you, time and again To send you wisdom, strength, and beauty For a new beginning in your further life

Then I fly out of the thunderclouds Rejuvenated and refilled with new dreams In the formless, I envision a new beginning Of the most beautiful creation that has yet to come

And on my path after fifty years I think back to that time of yore Disco, floppy disks, microchips without windows The angelus ting of a manual typewriter

Once more I dial the old number on the rotary dial phone After school time that seemed longer than in modern times Like in the old days I hear my mother answering the phone Can I stay with my friend? They have vanilla crumb pie

I reminisce a crazy ride in a Chevy Camaro With a broken exhaust, ‘Another one bites the dust’ Yes, the old TV, station sign off, test pattern…Snow...Dot…Nothing Bedtime children, this is the end of the broadcasting show

Ah, the wild west of my youth Summer in the city, everything shiny and warm Where peace actually had a chance Where songs were filled with hope for tomorrow

For me, in 2020, a new phase will begin The children have grown and flown out Somewhere deep down the first thoughts emerge Of new happiness, children’s children, a new generation

Ah, this wonderful phase of growing older The rough stone is now more polished My once wild hair already turning gray Oh well, that’s the toll that life demands

I realize, whoever pursues happiness must slow down Enjoying means reducing business and unrest In the stillness the symbol for 2020 reveals itself I consider it and accept it cheerfully

I overlook the panorama and perspective again Fifty years ago, a life that happened, tomorrow Looking for the meaning of 2020 I hope it will be a period of understanding

Oh, how it will be a wonderful day, that first day of 2020 Where listening and judicious thinking brings us new balance Where the loneliness of the ego has seen the end A way that leads us to an era of togetherness