Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

| Wednesday December 22, 2010 00:00

Even individuals take time to review the exiting year to find where they got things right and where they were not so successful, an exercise in what personal development experts call personal strategy. Everyone takes time to review the past year and preview the coming one. Challenges that remain from the last year require a new point of approach in order to reach the goals targeted. 

However, above all, this is the time for merrymaking and rejoicing. People take time to refresh and get their minds off the demands of their professional, academic and business life. Some take the opportunity to visit other countries. But whatever we do, safety must be of the essence at all times. On the surface of it, we lose nothing by taking precautions but run the risk of suffering losses by being careless. Beyond the surface, however, the reality is that we gain a new lease of life by avoiding the many pitfalls that always surround us.

Hence, precautions are forever apt to keep, including those that we have come to (dis)regard as mere figures of speech because we have heard them over and over again. But we should understand their repetition to underline their universal relevance to the sanctity of life. Of immediate resonance here is, Don't Drink And Drive. Hell, no!We are in the two-week period associated with bedlam and mayhem, a considerable amount of which is the consequence of irresponsible personal conduct that seems to be propelled by an uncanny death wish. And then we wallow in grief over dear ones gone and sink in sorrow when we contemplate life bereft of the breadwinner. It is a measure of this avoidable misery that it appears irrelevant to think about the drain on the economy.

Staying sober, or at least drinking in moderation, would help us to remain mindful of the tasks ahead in the New Year - school fees and school uniforms, most of all. It's no more three weeks whence. It is therefore important to spend responsibly as we celebrate the Nativity and remember that the birth of the Messiah proceeded from the Mercy and Grace of God.

Thus, from us at Mmegi and The Monitor, this is wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

                                                                        Today's thought

                                       There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries. 

                                                                     -W.J. Cameron