2022- The year that has been filled with stories of challenges, disappointments, opportunities, hopes, resilience, endurance and survival.
It is a privilege for the GCGI to do what we do, to remain a force for good, to stay in touch with our readers, family and friends and to continue our pilgrimage of hope together.
In 2022 we needed ways to connect with ourselves and with each other
For the Common Good
We are Greater, Better and Happier Together
Following the Light of Hope was and is our chosen Path
A still from Follow The Light. A photo by Jb Liautard/ Via The Guardian
That was the year that was…2022 in Review
So 2022, the year of many changes, upheavals, environmental disasters and continuing degradation, and such likes, but also of hopes and dreams most of us have ever known, is drawing to a close, and it’s time to take our annual look back at the year in our Blog Postings.
This year at our GCGI Blog pages, as in previous years, adhering to and with full respect for our founding mission and vision- a vision that has always positioned the quest for economic and social justice, peace and ecological sustainability within the framework of a spiritual consciousness and a practice of open-heartedness, generosity and caring for others, we posted over 110 Blogs.
We shared them all with our GCGI Family and Friends. I want to thank many of them who often write back to me, sharing their thoughts, wisdom and insights. To all of them I am most grateful. They fill me with positive energy. They inspire me to carry on, doing what we all do in the interest of the common good. Believe me, if I could, I would personally carol my gratitude and thanks at their doors.
Here in this Blog, as a tocken of our journey in 2022, I wish to share a pick from the 110 Blogs that we had posted this year, by choosing a selection of them, and to showcase them for our further reflection.
First, I wish to recall two personal postings and then, I will continue with my selection of Blogs.
On March 16, and then on 19 August 2022, my family and I as well as many of my friends, celebrated my 70th birthday and the 50th Anniversary of my coming to England, a very happy and joyous days and moments for me. This is how, in the following two Blogs , I shared my joy with our GCGI family:
Celebrating the Gift and Miracle of Ageing: Giving Thanks as I Approach 70
Thank you England for 50 blissful years
In July we celebrated our GCGI 20th Anniversary. Therefore, my first pick from our 2022 archive is to recall this joyous moment:
Seeking Wisdom and Truth and Giving Thanks for Blessings and Miracles
A Life so Lived is to Seek the Essence of the Common Good
GCGI is our Journey of Hope and the Sweet Fruit of a Labour of Love.
GCGI Our Journey of Hope is 20 Years Old
Then, I wish to note the first and the last Blogs which were posted in 2022:
Life is too short not to live it simpler (The first Blog of 2022-posted on 4 January)
Economic and Business Lessons of Scrooge and his Transformation (The last Blog of 2022- posted on 17 December 2022)
In early 2022 the world witnessed an ominous troop buildup on the Ukrainian border; weeks later Europe would once again become a continent of land wars.
From real-life wars amongst ourselves to the war that we have waged on Mother Earth and Nature, we are often reminded of how humanity could be destroyed. The pertinent question must surely be: So how best can we protect our future, our survival?
War is the Failure of Humanity: The Tragedy of What We Are Collectively Doing
On 8 September 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96. She was the longest-reigning monarch in British history, and the presiding figure over a period of profound change. Almost nobody alive remembers a world without her…
This is how in a Blog posted on 9 September I recalled some aspects of her long-reigning life and achievements, as well as my dreams for the new King’s era:
The Second Elizabethan Era has Ended and a New Era is Beginning
Economic education has always been very close to the GCGI’s heart. Thus, the following Blog which was posted on 6 November 2022:
Today, more than ever, our world needs each of us, all of us, to tap into the innate love, compassion, joy, beauty and wisdom that a good values-led education and economic understanding which can ignite the much needed passion in us to become the architects and builders of a better world, we are all yearning for.
In Search of Global Healing: Buddhist Economics- Cultivating Wisdom, Kinship and ‘Right Livelihood’ to Build a Better World
The Time is Now to Explore the Benefits of Nature-Based Education in Our Teaching Models
And in 2022 we watched with a good amount of joy the humiliation and caricaturisation of Neoliberalism and Thatcherism, more than ever in many parts of the world, but most significantly here in Britain, where the cheater, liar, values-free prime ministers were humiliated, caricatured and thrown out of office. May their plight be a lesson to all other foolish people everywhere!
Britain in Decline and The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism and Thatcherism
We Must Never Forget or Forgive the Enemies of progressivism and Progressive Values
The Fall and Humiliation of Liz Truss should Herald a New Beginning
Values like compassion, love, hope, gratitude, kindness and such likes, have always been at the forefront of values we have been guided by and honoured in all we do and believe in at our GCGI. In the Blog below, written on 14 May 2022, I tried to explain these more:
Compassion, kindness, hope, courage and joy: The Path to a More Loving World
“There’s power in love. Love can help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will.”
World in Chaos and Despair: The Healing Power of Love
‘Western societies tend to see nature and humanity as separate.
But are there other ways of relating to the natural world?’
'Heaven is my father and earth is my mother,
and I, a small child, find myself placed intimately between them.
What fills the universe I regard as my body;
what directs the universe I regard as my nature.
All people are my brothers and sisters; all things are my companions.’
We are not the Masters, We are the Servants: Time to Reassess our Relationship with Nature
In the final month of the year, in December, the world comes together again, this time in Montreal, Canada, to Save the World again and again!
“As far as biodiversity is concerned, we are at war with nature. We need to make peace with nature. Because nature is what sustains everything on Earth … the science is unequivocal.”
Cop15 Biodiversity Summit Montreal: Saving the World- Now or Never
“Our own life has to be our message”- Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen Buddhist monk, poet, environmentalist, peace activist and ‘Father of Mindfulness’ Born on October 11, 1926- Died on January 22, 2022
“If I am anywhere, it is in your mindful breathing and in your peaceful steps.”- Thich Nhat Hanh
RIP Thich Nhat Hanh ‘Father of Mindfulness’
These are the times when we desperately need inspiring and healing words of wisdom, hope and beauty.
A Gift from our GCGI archive to help set us free from chaos and despair, so that we may achieve inner peace and spiritual calm, a more generous and rewarding imagination, inspiring and empowering us to take action in the interest of the common good.
Life Lessons I've Learned in a World of Conflicting Ideas and Aspirations.
Journey to Healing: Let Me Know What is Essential
Hope is the torch that shines light on the plague of darkness
The Garden of Eden (Bereshit’ by Yoram Raanan)
GCGI is our journey of hope and the sweet fruit of a labour of love. It is free to access, and it is ad-free too. We spend hundreds of hours, volunteering our labour and time, spreading the word about what is good and what matters most. If you think that's a worthy mission, as we do—one with powerful leverage to make the world a better place—then, please consider offering your moral and spiritual support by joining our circle of friends, spreading the word about the GCGI and forwarding the website to all those who may be interested.
Wishing all our GCGI family and friends a very happy and healthy New Year
May your days be joyful and may you all enjoy the simple pleasures of life today and all year round.