The Mercury (this begins my 25th year of Monday to Friday Mercury columns)……..

It is a die-hard custom for columnist to “reflect” on the past year. Here are broad principles I have found to be true. I hope, readers in Southern Africa and elsewhere, that you will share yours with me:

Life is simultaneously beautiful and brutal. It is wiser to embrace both as fully as is humanly possible. Attempting to reject life’s inevitable brutality seems to delay deep appreciation and awareness of its beauty.

Generosity, kindness, openness to all others are more powerful than any politician or army.

My enemies unknowingly serve me, make me think, make me honor my life with greater effort and dedication. Thank you. I owe you. I long to repay you with grace, respect, and honor.

If I think my sons and their friends cannot teach me anything I soon discover I indeed have a lot to learn.

The most difficult people, the most demanding clients, the most trying customers, are those who offer me the most powerful opportunities to grow, learn, and exercise love and grace.

People do what they want to do. No finely designed intervention or battery of therapeutic skills can stop a person doing what he or she really wants to do.

The minute I blame anyone for anything, I regress. The minute I take responsibility for myself, I grow.

#graceupongrace