Happy New Year!
Seems as if every year-end I think, “Boy, I’m glad that one’s over. Next year has got to be better.” But I’m not sure that’s true. Last year wasn’t really better than the year the before. In many ways the previous years’ indulgences, greed, and wishful thinking just finally all caught up with us at the same time in 2009. So, instead of being glad to see 2009 go, I’m going to rethink the year 2009 as having been better than it started out to be, bad as it was. And I’m still here. My family is all here. We are alive and mostly healthy, and moving on.
About New Year’s Resolutions: hate them! They seem, to me, to burden the new year before it’s begun with “Have Tos”, “Should Dos”, “Do Nots”, and other general admonishments that really just call attention to whatever I think is wrong or deficient with myself in the first place. NOT a good way to clear the decks and begin with renewed vigor. So I’m going to start with Happy Tos:
1. Happy to have lost weight this year. Will repeat with even better results next year. If not better then more of the same.
2. Happy to have had a book out this year. Will repeat the effort next year even if the results don’t turn up until 2011. One must begin.
3. Thrilled to have seen all my immediate family at least twice each last year, particularly since everyone lives at least one state, some more, away. Repeat at will in the new year. And maybe I can add other family members.
4. Grateful to have so many good friends. Some I haven’t seen in a long time but thank goodness for email, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, and so forth. I feel in touch even when I can’t touch. For the new year I will try to learn to be a better texter. Tweet? Probably not!
5. Grateful and honored to have so many readers of my novels. It’s been mostly a pleasure to write and its always and continuously an honor to hear from anyone who spent the money to buy a book and then thought enough of it to write me about it. Those make my day, the Icing On The Cake. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)
Who knows what the future holds? Mostly more than we can imagine and a few things we wouldn’t want to face if we knew about them in advance. Yet here we are, again, on the precipice. And the view goes on forever, for all we know.
