Hey, what do you know – it’s a new year, again!
More than I can remember, the general feeling I get is that 2017 was not a good year. As I think back on the years of my life (this was my 60th new year), I can’t easily ascribe good, or bad to any of them, though.
A year’s a long time (although it sure doesn’t seem that way, does it?), and a lot of things happen in a year, both good and bad. Certainly something really bad happening in a year might warrant a bad year designation, but chances are pretty good that some good things happen in that same year. I personally have a hard time tagging a whole year with a good or bad label, and maybe that means I’m just fortunate to lead a life balanced between good and bad fortune.
Or maybe I’m just blessed to see things that way.
I refuse to let news events dictate how I see a given year. In any given year, bad stuff happens. In fact, in any given year, horrific things happen. People, and events, can be shockingly cruel, and I doubt there’s any year in history that is free from this reality. In every year, people suffer, fortunes are lost, homes are lost or destroyed, and lives lost or torn apart.
But it’s also true that in every single year, wonderful new lives begin, for babies, for graduates, for newlyweds. Every year brings some miraculous discoveries – both on a personal and massive scale. Every year brings happy surprises, and triumphs over challenges. Every year brings new seasons, where the physical world seems to start anew. Certainly each new baseball season brings (at least temporarily) hope for a World Series Ring.
Every new child embodies unlimited hope, every single year.
Every new year brings new relationships, or changes (good or bad) in existing ones.
So, I see no reason not to expect a better year in 2018, for the simple reason that life grows more precious with every single year.
Happy new year!
