I’ve thought long and hard about what to write about in this, my first column [in the Budapest Times] of 2025.
I recently returned from Sierra Leone where I read about Hungary’s Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship Programme.
Last year, 32 students from Sierra Leone were awarded scholarships to study in Hungary for their bachelor’s and master’s degrees with one of the 32 pursuing a doctorate. I am strangely heartened by this, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with me at all.
There is a modicum of trade between the two countries with Hungary exporting poultry meat to Sierra Leone and importing titanium ore.
Ifitweremyhome.com tells me that if I moved from Sierra Leone to Hungary, I’d be 93% less likely to die in infancy or have HIV Aids but I’d be 3 times more likely to be in prison and 50% more likely to be murdered.
Learning about the brutal civil war that raged for 11 years in the country, pitting citizen against citizen with barbaric results was difficult, but necessary.
It is necessary to understand how quickly things can change.
One minute, life is fine. The next you’re having your hand chopped off or being shot and left for dead.
One minute you’re wearing what you like, going to college, enjoying the freedom you take for granted and the next, you’re covered and cowered, all freedoms curtailed.
One minute you’re living in one of the greatest countries on the planet, the child of undocumented parents, living the suburban dream and the next, the knock on the door comes and your world shatters.
The world is going through a seismic change.
Uncertainty is rife.
And uncertainty has ramifications that we need to understand.
With talks of pulling back US companies to the USA, how many employees of giants like Amazon, Meta, and Google are starting the new year worried about their future?
How many hundreds of thousands will die because of cuts to overseas aid and development?
How many more families, unable to get insurance against climate-related damages, will founder during the next storm, wildfire, or hurricane?
Yes, uncertainty is rife. And science tells us that that’s not good.
I want to share this poem, Blessing for Courage, by John O’Donohue with you.
Maybe it’ll help.
Maybe it won’t.
Maybe you’re not feeling as uncertain as I am.
But then again, maybe you are.
Here it is.
When the light around lessens
And your thoughts darken until
Your body feels fear turn
Cold as a stone inside,When you find yourself bereft
Of any belief in yourself
And all you unknowingly
Leaned on has fallen,When one voice commands
Your whole heart,
And it is raven dark,Steady yourself and see
That it is your own thinking
That darkens your world.Search and you will find
A diamond-thought of light,Know that you are not alone,
And that this darkness has purpose;
Gradually it will school your eyes,
To find the one gift your life requires
Hidden within this night-corner.Invoke the learning
Of every suffering
You have suffered.Close your eyes.
Gather all the kindling
About your heart
To create one spark
That is all you need
To nourish the flame
That will cleanse the dark
Of its weight of festered fear.A new confidence will come alive
To urge you towards higher ground
Where your imagination
will learn to engage difficulty
As its most rewarding threshold!
Here to having the fortitude to get through 2025.
Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others. Create that spark.
First published in the Budapest Times 1 February 2025
Share this:
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
- Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
2 responses
Thank you for this…
You’re very welcome…