¹To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: ²A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; ³A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; ⁴A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ⁵A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ⁶A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; ⁷A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ⁸A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. — Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” — Thessalonians 5:18

Of all the seasons and moments in the year, I love the Christmas season and the songs celebrating and remembering the birth of Jesus. I love the December rush to close the year and usher in a new one.

I also enjoy the round up in this column’s segment called the Good, the Bad, and the Downright Ugly in which I round up the events that have taken place in Malawi and around the world. Truth be told (and I usually almost always tell the truth), the year 2025 reminded me of the year 2020, even without the Covid-19!

We have lost friends, relatives, and many famous actors, actresses, and sports personalities, have passed on into glory. Looking at these from a distance (January to December 2025!), it has been a big mix bag of the Good, the Bad, and the Downright Ugly.

In brief, on the good platform, the world welcomed a new Pope, American born (out of Chicago) Pope Leo XIV. He replaced Pope Francis who passed to eternity in April. A peace accord was agreed in the Middle East. On the local scene, my first born son turned 50. Years. Old. On September 16, Malawians re-elected former President Peter Mutharika, complete with the second female Vice President, retired Supreme Court Judge, Dr. Jane Ansah. To cap all this goodness, my new book, a 3-year journal entitled 365 Day of Gratitude – One Day at a Time, is finally in the bookshelves and available online.

Leo XIV is the first Pope from the Order of Saint Augustine and the second Pope from the Americas (after Pope Francis), and is counted as the 267th pope. He is a dual citizen of Peru and the United States. He is the first American pope, in the sense of being the first born in the United States. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics. Pope Leo has met three of his predecessors, namely met Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis. Although his messages are in Latin, Americans for sure, get a thrill hearing him when he speaks in English, complete with his Chicago accent. It  is like listening to one’s next door neighbor.

In the Hamas-Israeli war that started on October 7 2023, approximately 70,000 Palestinians and 1,200 people in Israel have been killed. A multilateral agreement between Israel and Hamas, the Gaza peace plan aims to address the ongoing Gaza war and broader Middle Eastern crisis. The process is led by United States President Donald Trump, it was negotiated in consultation with many Arab and Muslim countries. On its part, the United Nations Security Council on November 17, approved a U.S.-drafted resolution for peace in the Gaza Strip, a breakthrough for the Trump administration’s twenty-point plan to broker peace in the region. The vote was 13–0. China and Russia abstained from voting.

In September, former President Peter Mutharika, pulled what can be termed a hat-trick in football circles, when he won Malawians’ votes in a landslide. He scooped 58% of the vote in another landslide victory! He beat then incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera who only secured 33 percent of the ballots cast on September 16.

Mutharika brought to the State House, the second female vice president, but the first high court justice. Malawi is thus being ruled by two legal giants. Mutharika is a former professor of law from Rutgers University.

When one of my students hit me on the head with a steel-legged chair, I was out on sick leave for two month. During this time, I was led in my search of the scriptures to 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that states “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 

The lesson for gratitude and thankfulness is an important aspect of our faith. In meditating on this verse, I was inspired to create the  3-year journal entitled 365 Day of Gratitude – One Day at a Time; author’s name is Jayzedkay – which is my initials . In the journal there is space to write daily nuggets of gratitude, for 365 days.

The journal owner can then go back to January of the next year and start the daily gratitude journey of writing from January to December. After three years, journal owners will discover, as I have, that “the more grateful and thankful we are, the more uplifted we feel. As we lift up our gratitude and thankfulness, we too are lifted up in the most divine manner possible!”

The journal opens with 20 scriptures on gratitude and thankfulness. These are followed by a three-year gratitude space for people to write in their daily gratitude and thankfulness! The journal is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Next week, Part II of The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Ugly.

The Maravi Post