A fresh new year is intoxicating. In the last days of the old year, the new year sits there, like an unwrapped present. You don’t know what the package holds, but you know it’s full of promise.
Last year started full of promise, too, but we’re ready to discard it. We eagerly await the new year like it’s the latest version of our favourite game. Last year is outdated and embarrassing. The new year will be better. Version 2018, new and improved.
Last year, whether it was good or bad or a mixture of both, is ready to be packed up and placed on the shelf, full of memories and mistakes and trials and triumphs. Not one thing can be added, taken away, or changed. Fine. We are so done with 2017.
A new year, before it begins, is perfect. It is rich with possibility. A whole year lays before us, with not one black mark in it. No mistakes, no misunderstandings, no losses. A clean sheet onto which we’ll write a fresh story. Another chance.
A new year brings optimism. This is the year we’ll finally accomplish something. This is the year things will turn a corner. This is the year that will make a difference. With 365 days stretched out before us, there is abundant opportunity to get things done—and done right. We’re limited only by our imagination.
After the chaos of the holidays, the new year signals a return to routine. Our plans for December started sliding off the rails by mid-month and never got back on track. Seasonal gatherings, shopping, and snow days ate up more time than we anticipated.
Now it’s a new year. Now we are free to plan, to schedule, to set priorities that matter to us. With a whole year stretching out before us, we know that any setbacks can be overcome. If something doesn’t go to plan this month, it’s no problem. There are many more months to catch up.
A new year is a state of mind. We’ve trained ourselves to view the year as a inviolable unit of time. Yet a year contains other units of time: twelve months, fifty-two weeks, 365 days, and countless hours. Each one of those is another blank slate. With a mental nudge, those units of time could hold the same promise, the same opportunity.
Can we train ourselves to see the promise of each new month or week, the same way we see the promise in a new year? How would our lives look if we recreated the intoxication of a new year each new month and new week? What about each new day?
How refreshing it could be to wake up each morning to unwrap a gift of a perfect day stretching before us. Happy New Year, everyone! Happy New Day!
