Most people ring in the New Year hoping that it’s better than the last. They make resolutions they can’t keep and harp on how bad the last year was for them. But really how bad was it and how is hoping for a better one going to make it, well…better. Don’t get me wrong, I understand there are valid reasons for complaints.

Think about it, though.  Do we celebrate on the eve of the New Year to remember all the good in the past year or to forget all the bad? What do you think?

I have 249 people on my FB friends list and not once have I heard how great 2011 was and hope that the coming year is just as good.

Are we really programmed to be negative all the time. Are we so brainwashed by the media to the point we can’t even express the good in our lives. That’s pretty sad. It’s pretty sad that people think all we want to hear are the bad things.

A close cousin of mine died in April of 2010 and that October her daughter’s husband was diagnosed with cancer. I would say her last two years of endurance is valid enough for her to forget the past and to wish for a better 2012. And she did. She said 2011 was the worst year ever, but followed it by saying, however there was one good thing and that was the army of friends she had behind her and her husband for support and love and the help they needed to get through such a difficult time. Regardless of all the hurdles she had to overcome she still found it in her heart to find the good in something that left her devastated.

I love this woman. If ever in my life I come to a crossroad I hope I have at least half the courage she has.

Happy New Year

ONE of my wishes is that those dark trees,
So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,
Were not, as ’twere, the merest mask of gloom,
But stretched away unto the edge of doom.
I should not be withheld but that some day
Into their vastness I should steal away,
Fearless of ever finding open land,
Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.
I do not see why I should e’er turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear.
They would not find me changed from him they knew–
Only more sure of all I thought was true.

~ Robert Frost