New Year

New Year's. It's the celebration of out with the old and in with the new. It's a holiday celebrated all over the world as we all say goodbye to one year, 365 days, and hello to a new year filled with possibilities. To me New Year's has always had magic surrounding it, a wonderment in the way we say goodbye and welcome the new all in one night. I've always believed how I celebrate New Year's sets the tone for the rest of the year. Superstitious? perhaps but that's the power of thinking. I believe it sets the tone and so it does, Maybe that's putting to much pressure on one day to dictate how a whole year goes, but think about it from this perspective. the title is New Year's not another year or a different year but NEW. New meaning anything is possible, clean slate, fresh start, washing away the old, embracing the future, and last but not least it;s hope, With a new year brings the hope that this year will be the year hence New Year's resolutions, which gives us the chance to take charge and control of our future and year. It's the first day in 365 days in which anything can happen. There's a rush to not knowing what the year could bring and that you could start out the year in a completely different way than the way you end it, It's scary and exciting in the same breath, but you can feel the energy of everyone around you as they reminisce and dream of the future in the same night. I think that's what makes New Year's so magical is the dichotomy of the whole evening. Old and new , goodbye and hello, past and future, memories and dreams. all of those opposites come together in one night so that we can say goodbye to one year and welcome a new year.

As I count down the new year, 5...4...3...2..1...,, it feels as if I step through a doorway and I can feel myself letting go of everything that occurred in that old year all the pain, all the regrets, I get to choose what I hold on to and what I take through that door, When that clock reaches 0, I shout Happy New Year! all that I was holding on to trying to say goodbye to just flies away as I step across to a whole new year where nothing has happened yet. I can feel the hope and the dreams coursing through me, feeling like a snake that has shed her skin. I'm fresh, free of last year's baggage, ready to make the year what I want the year to be.

I'm not going to put any New Year's resolutions, that I won't follow through on, here or make a list or plans for the new year because that's not what this is about. A new year is about the unkown, about welcoming it as it is and not as you think it should be. It's about embracing the fear and stepping into the year with nothing but hope. So as I step into this new year I will cling to this feeling as long as possible until it evetually fades and the uncertainty, fear, and doubt return. But I will hold on knowing that come the end of the year I can once again welcome that feeling back with hope that maybe just maybe one year I can hold on to that New year feeling all the way through.