What is it about endings and beginnings that cause us to review, remember and re-prioritize? Whether it's a new year, a new job, a new home, or any other "new" in our lives, there is something about it that causes us to take stock of where we have been and where we'd like to go. There is something built in to each one of us that causes us to look back when it's time to look ahead.
In "Anne of Green Gables" Lucy Maud Montgomery gives us the wonderful quote : "Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it." Perhaps we like "new" so much for that reason. No matter how hard we try to be "good" we can never get away from the fact that every day, every year, is full of mistakes. We have an innate sense of when we've done wrong. It's called a conscience. We all have regrets. Things we wish we hadn't done or said, as well as things we wish we had done or said. There is something in us that knows we can do better and that wants to do better. Perhaps the reason that celebrating the New Year has become such a large celebration over the centuries is that the changing of the calendar reminds us that "Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it."
So, as I do every year, I am taking the last few days of December into the first few weeks of January to review, remember and re-prioritize. I look back on the year gone by and think about the major events that occurred, what's been lost, what's been gained. Each event is now part of my history and who I am. Each event has served to shape me in some way. Then I look ahead at the events that are already planned for the coming year. I think about who I am becoming and how I want to reach forward toward the best that I can be. There will be mistakes, but then there will be another "new" in my life to remind me that my tomorrow, and yours, is fresh with no mistakes and we get a chance to try again.
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