Cheers to a new year...

and another chance for us to get it right.

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential.
--Ellen Goodman

Dear Friends,

At exactly twelve o'clock last night, it became a new year. I think that is pretty exciting! Actually, I am not sure I have ever been more excited about beginning a new year...except maybe 2000 (because I envisioned explosions and computer meltdowns and having to ration out my food and because I knew the days of the disgusting, superfluous use of "Party Like It's 1999" had finally reached their end).

I hope that you were able to ring in the new year with the person/people you love. Maybe you watched the ball drop on what is formerly known as "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve", which has been tragically commandeered by Carson Daly. Maybe you travelled somewhere awesome and experienced midnight in a different time zone (an experience I hope to encounter...possibly next year). Maybe you put on you dancing shoes and hit the town. Maybe you put on flannel pajamas and curled up on the couch with Chinese takeout and a few Blockbuster rentals. However your evening went, I hope you were able to reflect on 2007, gear up for 2008, and maybe even snag a kiss from the person sitting next to you.

Today marks the beginning of a new year. And you can choose to look at it one of two ways: 1) As just another day on the Gregorian calendar or 2) A fresh start. A clean slate. A day of optimism that opens the door to so much possibility. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, "Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man." Maybe this is where resolutions come into play. Today is a day to remind yourself that if 2007 wasn't all you hoped it would be...it's over now and, therefore, in the past. And who wants to live in the past? This year can become anything you want it to be. Anything at all. See, that is exciting! Happy New Year!

For last year's words belong to last year's language.
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
--T.S. Eliot

Sincerely and with appropriate love for the type of relationship we have,
Melia

One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things.
--John Burroughs