It has been a year like no other within living memory.

Life as we used to know it has become manipulated by interests far from home and people far from our daily lives, by media who spin a yarn as fantastical as the fairy stories of our childhood, peopled by wicked monsters and invisible dangers that would eat us all up, in a moment, if we dared to breathe or go outside to dance for joy in the sunshine and hug a child or loved one.

In this time of tribulation and stress, people’s thoughts have turned in different directions as they clung to hope and each other, wherever possible, whenever possible, as much as possible

It feels that we are at a turning point.

Some talk about the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

Some saw significance in the rare conjunction of the Saturn and Jupiter around the time of the solstice, with the moon and Venus in close proximity, a reminder of the Star of Bethlehem, which was said to have shone illuminating the birth of Christ. We need a beacon of hope and life, an uplifting message that inspires our better self and gives a way forward into 2021, where life is victorious, overwhelming the darkness, disorder and dismay of 2020.

As we look forward and move forward, let it be into warmth and friendship of a better year for one and all.

That was the decade that was.

And so we wish for a new decade where freedom rises from the conflicts and confusions of yesterday to a brighter dawn in a better world.

A new generation faces new challenges to make the world thrive and survive on a better level than we have known before — or even just to maintain existing levels in a bigger world population than the earth has ever had to sustain within living memory or anything an archaeologist can find out about.

We need to build new technologies and develop new businesses to turn our throw away waste in to resources for our survival, to unlock the hidden potential in nature’s forces all around us such as wind and wave power, geothermal heat sources, the carbon capturing possibilities of algae in the oceans, to make climate control ethical.

With these thoughts, I wish you a wonderful decade starting with 2020.

May your dreams come true.