I am writing this the day after Epiphany, which is the last day of Christmas. It seems fitting, today, to turn our thoughts more fully towards the new year and all that it brings. In the last few days, the UK finally left the European Union for good and then went into a national lockdown as COVID contagion accelerates and threatens to overwhelm the NHS. In the last 24 hours, the US witnessed astonishing scenes as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building.
Perhaps, like many of us, you had hoped that as the calendar flipped into 2021 a new and more hopeful landscape would reveal itself. We all hoped that the new year would bring greater stability and offer us the opportunity to look forward with a measure of certainty. If the last few days are anything to go by, we still have a way to go before we see the sort of settledness for which we hope. Given this reality, how might we posture ourselves towards the coming year? When so much remains outside our control, what are some things we can do in order to manage our lives well in this season?