It can always be better!

Many people comfort themselves by saying ‘things could be worse’.

Anything bad that happens, war, sickness, money problems… it could be always be worse.

Sometimes that can be comforting. Things may be ‘bad’ but they are not ‘worse’, thank G-d.

This is the opposite of noting that things could be ‘better’. If I were to think about all the things that are not ‘better’, I may get depressed… After all, if things could be better, why aren’t they? If I could have more money, more health, more love… why don’t I have them?

Much has been said about this year. About the bad and about the good.

The bad: disease, death; economic problems for many and economic disaster for some; loneliness for many in risk groups and for those who couldn’t meet with people in those groups; loss of jobs, school closings; lockdowns and being stuck at home; family tensions coming to the fore; etc etc…

The good: more intimacy, more concentration on what’s ‘really important’, more appreciation for the ‘little’ things, which are really big things.

Some people this year are wishing each other a ‘better’ year, meaning that this year wasn’t that great and assuming that everybody knows what they mean. Corona…

I’d like to wish everyone, and myself, a better year… every year! A better day… every day!

The important things in life – love, self-esteem, self-satisfaction, good relationships with your loved ones and with the people who are close to you – can always get better… even when they already are wonderful!

I wish for myself better health, more energy, more peace of mind, more satisfaction; to forgive myself more for the things that I’m unhappy that I did or didn’t do; to be happier about the things that I’m happy that I did or didn’t do; to feel stronger that my life is and was worth living; to come to terms with past suffering and to realize, ever more, that it wasn’t really that bad…

I wish this for myself every day, every year.

And this is what I wish for others.

May we all have a better year… this year and every year, G-d willing.

David Wolf

Israel, September 2020