We Are Still Standing

I can’t believe we are almost in a new year; no doubt many of us can’t wait to see the back of a year that continues to be a challenge globally due to the pandemic.

For some of us, it is the irritations of not being sure about holiday plans, cancelling flights or returning from holidays early to beat a new set of rules and restrictions.

For others it is the pain of loss of close relatives and friends, not being able to say goodbye in a preferred or befitting manner, it is parents missing children who have been unable to visit home in a long time.

Those in the catering, hotel and entertainment industries have had huge mountains to climb with some having to shut down their businesses. Many have lost their sources of livelihood and depend on the government to help them out.

Many town centres have vacant store spaces telling stories of the harsh realities of a tough couple of years.

We see the selfishness and foolishness of some world leaders gracing the front pages of newspapers. In other nations with irresponsible and corrupt leaders, the suffering of the masses continue to be indescribable with people turning on each other for survival, often forgetting those responsible for their pain.

It is easy to look back over this year and remember only the bad stuff but as we end this year, I want to remind us that we are still standing despite all of the challenges.

Many have lost loved ones but they are still standing, some have lost jobs but again, they are still standing.

And as they say in my local Nigerian parlance, ‘we are still managing o’. this is our way of saying the struggle continues and we are riding the waves of it and we are pushing through at all costs.

In our struggles, we are never alone. If we truly look around us we will find others in the trenches alongside us, some ahead of us and others coming behind us. We are all in the trenches together soldiering on.

The mistake we often make is that we fail to see others and miss out on the opportunities to encourage each other, support and defend each other or even to speak up on their behalf.

This is often because we are too pre-occupied with our own trenches; we get competitive about ‘our trenches being deeper or wider than theirs’, forgetting that each trench is completely different and unique to each person even though it may look similar from afar.

As Maya Angelou said, “We must be warriors in the struggle against ignorance”. We can’t afford to be blind to the fact that we don’t struggle alone. As we see each other’s struggles, we can act in love, compassion and grace towards others.

No matter how bad things get, we know there’s someone else who has it worse so there’s always room for gratitude.

This year should have taught us just how truly global the world is, not just in our struggles but in our humanity as well.

In closing, we have survived this year and we are still standing. But for next year, my prayer is that we fully thrive and to do that, we must all figure what thriving means for us.

I will end with another quote from Maya Angelou which says, “The question is not how to survive, but how to thrive with passion, compassion, humour and style.”

I wish you a happy new year in which you will gloriously thrive. In the meantime, be grateful everyday for the gift of life.