New Beginnings

January....a new beginning...a new year....a time to start over....to put the past behind us and move on in life. I love having the opportunity to start over.  It implies that if something was not exactly as we wanted it in the past, then we have another chance, another opportunity, to do it again and to do it right this time.  We have all failed at something and have wished we could just erase what we had done and start again.  The end of one year and the beginning of another offers us exactly that chance to begin again.

The last two New Years Eves before this one we were in the Seattle area with our daughter and son-in-law. The first year we watched fireworks from the roof of the apartment building in which they lived in downtown Seattle.  We stood on the roof with many others and watched the streams of color burst over the city's trademark, the Seattle Space Needle, shivering in the cold and excited to see the blaze of color and light in the sky but also ready to head inside and have something hot to warm us up.  That was a great New Years Eve and one that will go down in our memories as very special.

Last year we were back in the Seattle area again, this time our daughter and son-in-law had moved to an eastern suburb, Bellevue.  There were no fireworks that year, only enjoying the evening with them while they fixed chicken wings and food to go with it.  We popped the champagne at midnight and hugged and kissed and said, "Happy New Year!" and then I went off to bed while the other three stayed up later talking and laughing.

This year we were at home.  Our daughter and son-in-law had come to visit before Christmas and we had dinner with friends over at our house, each pair providing some of the meal.  It was a nice quiet evening of food, music, and conversation.  Then, the party broke up around 10 pm and the new year came to some who stayed up to see it and others went on to bed, sure that the new year would arrive without any help.

New Years Day was quiet, pensive, a gray, rainy day that welcomed a lazy attitude.   A late breakfast, a late lunch, a walk around town, a visit from a friend, all made the day special.  The day seemed just right.  A good day to start a new year.

Today...back at work, things to do to get the new year going, but still feeling mellow from the holidays.  A New Year, a new beginning, a new attitude that life is good and the future is hopeful.