Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed a slightly negative slant to a large number of my most recent columns, which strays from a tradition at the advent of a new year, when the usual practice is to strive for ebullience.
You’ll have to admit, though, the year just past gave us little to be happy about—other than the fact that we survived it—and 2026 shows no signs of being much better. Nevertheless, I will now try to turn the ship around, away from the sea of sadness and toward the gulf of gaiety, or at a minimum, the pond of positivity.
There is an old saying that I’d like to share to set the tone. ‘Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” The origin of that saying is one of history’s greatest mysteries, and it really doesn’t matter who said it first, because it’s the best advice I can think of to equip us to cope with the uncertain times that lie ahead. Another way of putting it would be, “When the road ahead is dark, don’t despair, light a candle.”
I’m not usually one for predictions, but I predict the year will be at best dim. We can, therefore, approach it in one of two ways, because we must. We can lower our heads and charge into the darkness, cursing up a blue streak, and hope we survive to reach the other end in one piece.
Or, we can pause, light a candle, and find our way around the obstacles that are bound to be in our way. Oh, did I forget to mention that running blindly into the dark unknown is likely to lead to crashing into all manner of obstacles? That’s what we get when we curse the darkness. It curses us back.
How, though, do we light a candle against the travails of this troubled world? First, keep in mind that a candle only lights a relatively small space immediately around you. In that space, you can see and avoid the obstacles, and as you move, the space that you can see moves with you. If you do this, space by space, week by week, month by month, eventually you will clear your way to the end of the year.
In other words, try to fix the things around you that you can fix, and keep a positive attitude and forward momentum. I’ve found this to be infectious. If you’re positive, those around you are likely to be positive as well. If they light their candles, the area you can see increases, and the impact you have on the situation is greater.
And, that’s it in a nutshell. If you want life to be better, wishing alone won’t do. Work to make things better. Encourage those around you to do the same. Light those candles and see the road ahead light up for you. | NWI
