Traditionally, around this time, the general populace would be counting down the days remaining in this year. Simultaneously, one would be counting the days to the New Year, looking to it with much hope and anticipation. Many people would be getting their plans to bring in the New Year underway, while many others would be making their New Year’s resolutions, and devout Christians, their Covenant.

But as this year 2020 is quickly drawing to a close and as the New Year 2021 beckons above the horizon, feelings of nostalgia linger like a bittersweet perfume. See, last year around this time, we were getting ready to welcome 2020 with that same fervent spirit and hope and resolve, and 2020 proved to be a catastrophic, and in some senses, a cataclysmic year.

While the effects of the havoc that 2020 has wreaked are still fresh in our minds, somehow the serene tranquility of the holiday season coupled with the bliss and joy it brought, the mirth and the warmth it produced, seemed to have drowned out the noise of 2020.

But this closing year has rocked us to our core. It has battered us in more ways than one, tossed us out to the tempest, scorched us under its brutal heat, inundated us and forced us to bail out water by the bucket-loads and refocus our ideals.

Needless to mention, this year has rendered a record number of us unemployed and underemployed. We were forced to take on measures of austerity, while many others are grappling with the effects of poverty. A wide cross-section of our country’s populace remains indigent, while many others are still dejected and forlorn. Put it all together, and 2020 has been a terrible and a brutal year that brewed one tragedy after another; and holidays aside, we are now pooling our collective hopes together for a better New Year 2021.

As the days to 2020 slowly wind down and 2021 is quickly approaching, here’s a New Year’s wish that we can all hope for and believe in. I hope that this New Year 2021 will be a year that’s filled with revival and recovery. As we enter 2021, many people are feeling melancholic and pessimistic, and arc filled with cynicism and doubt.

Many people have lost so much this year, and their spirits have been severely dampened. So may this new year be a year of revival, where spirits and resolve may be uplifted, and doubts disappear and fade and where our collective losses will be recovered and blessings may be attained and will abound.

More than that, may this new year be one of love and cooperation. Too often, we underestimate the power of love amid the spirit of cooperation. If we really come together and act in loving service toward each other, the new year can certainly be a better one than this current one.

Sometimes, it’s not so much what life throws at us and the course of its detours, but it’s who we have by our side to help us navigate through our trials. So love and serve each other in a spirit of cooperation, and together we will be adequately equipped to weather whatever 2021 brings.

For this new year, let’s seek to strengthen our faith and reaffirm our resolve through prayer and supplication. We have certainly been through a lot and have experienced many life challenges and changes. Time and time again we came through, and it’s not as a result of our goodwill or sheer indomitability. The reason is because God heard our silent prayers and He knew the strength of our faith and thus brought us through.

So for this new year, may we seek to strengthen our faith and relationship with God, and reaffirm our resolve through prayer and supplication in earnest hope that this will be a better year for all.

Finally, for this new year, let us seek to step into 2021 with renewed hopes and optimism. Let us march on into this new year with an indomitable spirit. Let us seek to be there for one another in love and in service as fellow members of humanity. Know this, trials will come, but we will meet its challenges and we will overcome. If for nothing else, this will be an amazing year because we are an unassailable people and we will make it great!

Happy New Year to one and all. May this new year bring hope and mirror all the love and mirth that makes the heart glad. I pray prosperity on each and every one of you and may your favors and blessings number many and continually abound! ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

God Bless Belize!