How 2015 taught us to distinguish between stumbling and fallingMumbai, Dec 21(AZINS) Love Actually is the ultimate Christmas movie ever made. Ever since this movie was released, I have made it a customary to watch it on every Christmas day.

The movie starts with Billy Mack and his manager at a recording studio, trying to record their single, which is a new version of a previous single.

Billy keeps stumbling and with exasperation says, “It's just that I know the old version so well”. To which, his manager, simply suggests, “Well we all do, that is why we are making the new version”.

It got me thinking, 2015 was perhaps a year of new versions of new ways to respond. There were times we thought we were fallen and defeated, and were about to give up and surrender. Tempting as it was, to go with the imbalance and fall down or lash out. Within that stumble, we regained our balance and composure and chose to respond rather differently.

2015 was a year when we began to respond really differently.

Early in the year, we watched, with horror, the attacks on the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo. It made us question our values and lash out. We dug into our resources, found the gift of compassion and courage. Our response was to leave aside what separates us, to move towards what unifies us.

For a few weeks, we became one with Charlie. We walked the streets of Paris with Charlie.

Just when we thought we were going to fall, we recovered. It was just a stumble. If it wasn't enough that human beings were inflicting harm upon each other, Mother Nature vented her fury first in Nepal then in Chennai. Again our resilience came to the fore. People opened up their doors to help each other recover from the disaster that had befallen them. Nature has gifted us with hope to face the adversity of storms and earthquakes. Nepal, Chennai and many other places, will look back at its history and these events will be just another stumble.

2015 was an encouraging reminder of our capabilities to give us confidence, that we can face loss and death, grieve, pick up our lives and build flourishing communities.

Then from nowhere, came the confession from Volkswagen, of wrongdoing on emission standards. It seemed avarice was winning. On the other end of the spectrum, came Prince Alwaleed bin Talal; who pledged his entire $32 billion fortune to charitable projects. Closer home, in India, Azim Premji gave away half of his stake towards charity. Altruism is making its way into everyday life.

2015 was a year where we promised ourselves that human greed, can momentarily shake our faith, but our acts of altruism is the real legacy we leave behind for our children.

Speaking of children and legacies, history will remember Aylan Kurdi, as a strong soul who opened the doors to refugees. Aylan was the inspiration for Ikella Alonson, a designer, who designed the nativity scene for San Anton, a church in Madrid. The nativity scene has replaced baby Jesus with Aylan and his mourning parents stand in place of Mary and Joseph.

To end, let me go back to Paris and bring together two events. First, a few really young people chose to express; with lethal weapons and ammunition; their senseless rage, on their own brothers and sisters. Families, friends, neighbourhoods, communities were filled with grief and sorrow. Then emerged heart-swelling stories of people like Ludovic Boumbas, or Ludo to his friends, who died shielding his two friends from the bullets of a gunman. Paris was to be soon followed up in Mali. These events were not the first. History is replete with either youngsters walking into schools with assault weapons, wars breaking out over a single gunshot or youngsters joining renegade armies fighting an unfathomable cause. 

Think about what should be our long-term individual response towards terror?

A few weeks later, world leaders gathered in Paris to make the world a cleaner and a more livable place. An accord has been reached; on behalf of all of us.

So again, think about what should be our long-term individual response towards the crisis of climate change?

Thursday is Christmas eve and Friday is Christmas. Here is what I suggest: Pick out your best suit, gather your friends, and around midnight make your way towards a church, chapel or cathedral, and take in the simplicity of the nativity scene. If you don’t want to do that, just Google the keywords “significance of the nativity scene”.

What you will experience is the emotion of hope.

Driven by goals - larger and beyond our own beings. We may not know how to get there, but the belief that we have the capabilities to pursue the goals, but the goals are worthwhile. The resilience to figure out pathways around the adversities that life will surely place in our ways.

To discover the subtle power of communicating with a higher purpose, that transcends the daily bumps of our lives.

The year 2015 was a year replete with positivity. It was a year when we chose to respond with the principles of positivity.

Positivity is a brand new topic. It is hardly ten or twenty thousand years old. Hinduism, Islamic, Buddhism, Zen, Tao, Greek, Roman, Sikhism, Jainism, Aztec, Judaism and Christianity have all listed the concepts of Connectedness, Compassion and Courage; skills of resilience to adversity; the experiential benefits of honesty and altruism; and the starting point of the theory and practice of Hope; the combination of effort, talent and mastery; and the gift of humour to laugh at our failing, vanity, frailties and stumbles.

What keeps the topic young and fresh is the curiosity to uncover new methods of applying them in our lives.

If we can learn to distinguish between a stumble and a fall; and if within that stumble, we can find the kernels of hope, we will continue on the path of growth and mastery. Now, let's get ready for the next year. What are you planning to create in 2016?

The author is the Founder of The Positivity Company. As promised last time, he tried very hard to have 24 Sundays in a day. Now he is going to once again, think of what he will create in 2016. Watch out.