365 days, or

 

A New Year has arrived.

 

One wouldn’t think that the changing of a year could be so important, but somehow this year it is. We all awoke with the hope that life would be better this year, that we could finally put behind us the monumental changes that the pandemic brought, that we could

right the wrongs done to others and perhaps to ourselves, that we could be a kinder, gentler version of ourselves, in short that there will be a new beginning.

 

Personally, last night as we had our dinner and drank our champagne talk turned, unplanned and we rather pleasantly surprised ourselves, to the good things that had happened in 2021. Each of us came up with more than one would have thought given the anxiety of the past days, weeks and months. All this proves that there is always good even during the worst of times that looking for the good is much more fun and relaxing than enumerating the bad.

 

I have never been a fan of New Year’s resolutions, but we have all been given a clean slate, one on which we alone can write this coming year’s events. Let us try and create a nicer, a friendlier, a happier year. Let us be gentle on ourselves as well as with others; let us see the sun and not the shadows, in short let’s live each day as if there were no tomorrow; we have all seen how quickly life can change.

 

Look for the friendship, the love; be open with strangers, a new friend may be lurking just around the corner; treasure old friendships, family, colleagues, neighbors; be the best person that you can be – it’s easier than you think and much more rewarding.

 

Hope for a better future, not only for oneself and family, but for the world; in doing so one contributes to making it a possibility. Invest in people – that’s the only worthwhile investment; but above all be kind to yourselves.

 

It’s a New Year, it’s a new beginning: make the most of it so that at the end of another 365 days you can look back and say 2022 was a Good Year, let’s continue that way.

 

Sunrise over the mountains