As year’s go, 2022 has delivered both challenges and opportunities to Saint Francis Ministries. So, in one respect, it’s not much different from any other year. Still, the last several years have been a bit stressful for everyone, thanks to COVID and a host of other sociopolitical “stuff.”
Yet, our time is not unique. Every historical period has been fraught with difficulty, struggle, and challenge, and that’s unlikely to change – at least, in the foreseeable future. So, what are we to do?
Simply put, we focus on the present moment and keep doing our best. That’s what we’ve been doing at Saint Francis … people depend upon us, so we keep our attention on providing them with the care, support, and treatment they deserve. We remember that Saint Francis exists to serve, so we endeavor day after day to give the best quality of care to those who need it most.
We can do the same as individuals. We can try to live in the present moment and turn our attention to those who are struggling. We can do our best to live with as much kindness, honesty, integrity, and selflessness as possible. We can resolve that in 2023, we will endeavor to contribute to goodness in the world, rather than the bad. That may be the best we can do – but it’s a lot.
All of us have fallen short, and no doubt, each of us will again in 2023. We’ll break resolutions and make mistake after mistake. But we keep going, we refuse to give up. If we stumble, we stand up, dust ourselves off, and begin anew. We must, because the world needs our good intentions. Because others need our help.
So, as we enter into 2023, we might take some advice from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus: “The chief task in life is simply this – to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals, not under my control, and which have to do with the choice I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own.”
We can choose to be kind, trustworthy, compassionate, and selfless. We can choose to serve.
All of us here at Saint Francis Ministries wish you a happy and prosperous New Year filled with goodness.
