Help your neighbour this New Year

Hello mi neighbour! Happy New Year Jamaica! It is customary at this time for Jamaicans to wish one another happiness for the New Year.

A noble gesture, indeed, as for many, last year was not a very happy one. It's only fitting, therefore, to sincerely wish that these persons will experience true happiness in 2014!

We hasten to recognise, however, that merely wishing a fellow Jamaican happiness does not accomplish much. It's like standing on the shore wishing that the drowning man would get help.

If all the good wishes touted at the beginning of 2013 bore fruit, wouldn't we have more Jamaicans who are happy? Of course, we would!

And guess what - all the wishes for happiness and prosperity expressed among Jamaicans for 2014 can bear lots of fruits if we would take them a step further. And here is where some people are turned off, thinking that there are better things to do than ensuring that our country experiences happiness in 2014. But I hope they prove me wrong.

I no longer make or recommend New Year's resolutions. Most persons lack the discipline to make them a reality and, in many instances, these resolutions are unrealistic.

I'll, therefore, share some simple tips on how we can move as a nation from merely wishing happiness to actually experiencing it.

And I hear that snicker, but here we go:

Seek to forgive others quickly

Smile at someone every day

Call just to see how others are coping

Listen attentively to others

Be available when needed most

Hug at least four persons each day

Visit and pray with the sick

Do errands for the physically challenged

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Do something special for someone else every day

If we follow these tips, we could see sadness diminishing and happiness soaring in the land of our birth.

So then what will we do this year? Will we just do what is customary? Or will we make our wishes come true?

"If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him;

If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him;

like a shadow that never leaves him."

As you think on these things, please help someone from the list below. It could add to your happiness threshold for 2014.

Thanks to our neighbours

Derrick, St Andrew, for financial assistance granted to needy neighbours

Mr Clarke, St Catherine, for donating needed items to a neighbour

Marcia, St Catherine, for offering kitchen items to a Hanover neighbour

Mrs Wright, St Catherine, for offering a mattress to a needy neighbour

Great opportunities to help your neighbours

Neighbour, St Ann - asking neighbours for a small radio

Neighbour - mother of two trying to start a food prep business ... needs pots

Trician, Kingston - single mother with three children living on the road for past four years ... with children.

Myrna, Kingston - needs a dining table and curtains

Neighbour - asking for help on behalf of neighbour who has Alzheimer's ... zinc, ply, cement to fix leaking roof. Also needs a mattress

Diana, St Andrew - needs mattress for a twin bed ... for children

Neighbour - needs a bed and a table for children...wants them to sit comfortably and do home work

Neighbour - father has abandoned children. Wants to start a little poultry business

Jethro, St Andrew - asking neighbours for pampers for his bed-ridden wife

To help, please call 334-8165, 884-3866, 299-3412 or deposit to acct # 351 044 276 NCB. (Bank routing #: JNCBJMKX) or send donations to HELLO NEIGHBOUR c/o 53 Half-Way Tree Road, Kingston 10; email helloneighbour@yahoo.com