Viewing a new year through the eyes of a child is often one of excitement and wonder. The New Year doesn’t bring gifts like Christmas, but it is a time to start a new semester and feel the excitement of a whole new year stretching out, offering who-knows-what new experiences.
As we mature, we view a new year as a time to start over, to change bad habits and choices. It makes us reevaluate our lives and gives us hope that in the new year, things can be different. We have the choice to make better decisions. That’s why so many make resolutions.
For others, New Year’s Eve is a time to party and forget anything and everything and throw oneself into a night of overindulgence. The new year then brings consequences of such overindulgence, the least of which might be a nasty hangover. The new year has already crashed and burned for such individuals. That is a sad way to enter a new year.
I am far from being either a child or someone who goes to wild parties. Over the years, our New Year parties have been simply good friends enjoying one another’s company and bringing in the new year with cheers and toasting with non-alcoholic grape or apple drinks.
We haven’t even done that for several years. Easier to watch the ball drop on TV—if we’re still awake.
This year brings me back to reflection. In many ways, 2017 has been a good year. (Let’s face it, any year I don’t have a major fall, break something or end up hospitalized is a good year.) This has been a good year in many other ways as well. We welcomed the birth of another granddaughter. A real smiler this one. Our other granddaughter turned 13. The two granddaughters are 13 years and one day apart.
In September, our son and daughter and their families surprised us with a fun celebration for Keith’s 65th birthday. They took us out to eat, then set up our yard as a movie theater. We made memories.
I reflect on the losses of 2017. Too many goodbyes. We’re no longer spring chickens and we’re coming to that time life when we’re losing those we know and care about. Funerals are no longer a seldom occurrence. They march through our lives with much-too-much regularity.
Life is precious and I more and more treasure each day, treasure time with family and friends. Most of all I realize this life, as wonderful as it can be, is not all there is. My faith is stronger and my relationship with God more intimate. As I lose those I know, I wonder what the new year will bring. Yet I face the new year with excitement. I am still here. Life is a journey, and I will make the most of the time God has given, live it for Him—and give thanks.
Happy New Year!
Published by the Kearney Hub 01/01/2018 as “Reflecting on past, present, future”
By Carolyn R Scheidies
Read more about Scheidies’ life in The Day Secretariat Won the Triple Crown
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