If I could have one wish for the old New Year, I would only wish for peace. If there was finally peace, the other things would somehow work out. Written by Kata Szabó.
The new year started two weeks ago, but the problems we have had for years have remained and are only multiplying.
The Orthodox Church celebrates the old New Year today. According to the law, the holidays had to be held on the holidays of the Western Church, but we could see that hundreds of years of traditions cannot be changed with the stroke of a pen. This is how many people still celebrate in Transcarpathia. Or they're trying to celebrate. I say they do it right. However, it is bad to see that the further the holidays get, the sadder they are. Just like our everyday life.
War, inflation, exhaustion, grief and suffering.
Unfortunately, I no longer write the last two with bitter irony. This is what our months consist of, and I can write with a 'calm' heart that our years are slowly forming as well. Military funerals, lack of money, instability, worrying new laws, some of which are passed overnight. The leech people are scratching their heads about what is happening around them.
However, some good things happened, and it would be a crime to keep this quiet.
For months they have been shouting that we will have the darkest and coldest winter ever. Although we have indeed been measuring minuses for quite some time, we have electricity. At least there is a light in our hopeless situation, if we no longer see that certain light at the end of the tunnel. Some positives compared to last winter. But this is still scant consolation, especially for us young people, who have time to lay the foundations for the future.
Not everyone wants or can leave home. Moving abroad is not an option for everyone.
There are situations in life that are beyond our control and when there really is no choice. (Also, the fact that fences are made of sausages abroad is also worth noting.)
Nevertheless, we want to live in humane conditions, in peace and tranquility without stepping into another country.
I think this is not a huge request, at least in 2024 it should not be an impossible request. If I think about it, back then they thought that there would be at least flying cars by now... In comparison, we can see that there is no money even for a new car, let alone for the invention and production of a flying series. Pretty defoliating, isn't it?
I don't know what will happen to us. You have to hope, you have to believe.
In other words, you don't have to, but knowing myself, I would have celebrated the New Year with a clothesline around my neck. Here we are, without a vision of the future, floundering in one place, approaching 2024 with complete mistrust, but something still flickers deep inside. I only have faith in God and the love I feel for my relatives. I think this is where my "What's keeping my soul alive in 2024" list has run out.
Must believe. No one can take that away from me, from us. And you have to live. To live, to experience, to survive. As Mihály Zoltán Nagy wrote:
"You have to live, you have to live".
Featured image: MTI/EPA/Yuri Kochetkov
