We’re now nine days into 2025 — a year that many expect to be a challenging time of change for both our country and our island.

Here at The Beachcomber, we’re committed to providing you with local news you need to know — stories that both inform and help guide our community in a multitude of ways. We’ll do that week after week, as our community depends on us to do.

But to mark the dawn of the new year, we’d like to do something different in this editorial space this week — to offer an uplifting piece of writing by local artist Jennifer Hawke, who posted the following prayer for her friends and neighbors on social media in late December.

Hawke’s words and wishes for the New Year are suitable for any faith tradition and people of all ages and walks of life. We hope you find comfort and inspiration, as we did, in Hawke’s prayer. We’re all in this together.

May you be graced by the presence of the very old and the very young in your life, for these are your teachers.

May you find the appreciation of your own age, and may the light of this knowledge shine to those around you.

May you seek your own approval first. The opinions of others are valuable and good to consider, but it is you who shall answer for your actions. Live well with yourself inside your heart.

May your joys be greater than your deepest sorrows. May the wounds that you carry shape you for your greatest good.

May true compassion guide you as you extend your hand towards others. May many be lifted from the course of your actions.

May your mistakes and misunderstandings be brief and forgiveness come easily for yourself and those around you.

May the food that you eat, the water you drink, and the air that you breathe nourish your body and keep you in good health.

May there be a prayer of gratitude on your lips as these things pass through you, for sacrifice is always made for your nourishment.

May the diversity of your community be a celebration, not a divider. In your differences may you hold one another with appreciation and respect.

May you find your place in this world, for each blade of grass has a role to play. None is greater than the other, for without each other we are nothing.

May you remember to pray and tend to yourself first, for it is in your well being that you are available to others.

May your eyes find beauty in all things. Even in your darkest moments there is something, somewhere, that desires to lift your heart.

May you be the change you wish to see, and may there be joy for you in that path.

Most of all, may there be many footprints alongside the ones you make, and may you realize they are there.