Ginta — Thoughts on the first day of the year

Daniela Ginta writes for the Armchair Mayor News on Fridays.

COLUMN — The truth is, this New Year started in a most peculiar way, and unlike any other I left behind. We moved, starting on Dec. 30 and adding more to it on the 31^st. It was cold, we were all just recovering from the flu, and yet the move worked like a charm. The secret lies with the many willing hearts and arms that came our way and helped us move.

It makes a world of difference, and since I did not have time to come up with a smashing New Year’s resolution that will make everyone shake their heads in admiration, I will say it up front: sailing through a sea of boxes makes resolutions slightly less visible, unless you count the one that keeps repeating itself with every move “we have to get rid of some more stuff.” But more of that later.

No personal resolution, no problem. I will work my way from what I discovered to be true, yet again, in the year that we just bided goodbye to, and I will work that into a resolution of some sort: togetherness, the importance of stepping through life together. As families, as friends (a family too, no?), as small communities, as large communities. Nothing can be done right if we go at it alone.

In the year that passed I was taught, again and again, the importance of community and of collective well-being as a common goal. A resolution worth its salt can easily grow out of that.

My family and I were forced to move twice in one year. It is no easy feat, but we did it, boys included. We went through some home-related ups and downs that have rendered us rather sensitive to the words ‘mouse’ and ‘broken pipe’ but we came out grateful.

We had amazing life moments, and we had low difficult ones; we survived the latter, we learned to say ‘this too shall pass’ and we relished, still do, the memory of the good ones.

We stopped more often than I can remember to count our blessings for having people in our lives that make it all worthwhile, endurable and that much more precious.

From getting together for a cup of coffee, to sharing the bounty of a dinner, to helping when we had to, to accepting help when we could not do without, we had warm hearts that we could count on and loving hearts to give to, because I do believe that when our help is accepted, we are in fact the ones being given a gift of the heart.

From having people with us as we tied a family knot, to having them lend a shoulder when that was all we needed, as individuals or as a family, to having them open their doors as we went through the thick of home and life troubles and we needed shelter — both literally and figuratively — to getting help with moving our home and being told ‘Nah, no worries, we love being there for you,, my family and I have been reminded of gratefulness and what really matters time and time again.

Which is why personal resolutions, while important to a certain extent, do not come close in importance to the ones that I believe to be most important: the community ones. From family level outward, we are better together.

We are saner, happier, less sad or discouraged, more able to understand that though we come and go alone, we are not, by any means, forced to make the journey alone. It is a much richer one, and a worthier one, if we’re there for each other.

Here’s to hoping that in the age of privacy and online ‘friendship,’ the importance and vital role of real, face-to-face presence will make itself known to all, helping us cope and succeed, be there for each other, help us realize that when together, things are just bound to work out better.

Happy New Year!

Daniela Ginta is a mother, scientist, writer and blogger. She can be reached at daniela.ginta@gmail.com, or through her blog at http://www.thinkofclouds.com.