My 2007 was probably a lot like yours.
It offered us some incredibly wonderful times. It dished out some truly horrible times.
I look back and can see them all. It makes me happy to think of the best time, at my son’s wedding.
It breaks my heart to think of the worst time, when my nephew died.
But I’m looking forward to 2008, and not just because that’s pretty much the only way to look at 2008; forward.
I’m looking forward to it because 2008 is as blank and open and full of hope as my new calendar, the vintage looking one that says “Chocolat Pupier”, a translation I’m only half sure of.
But the picture’s nice. And I like chocolate. And there’s plenty of white space for writing.
So far, just a few January boxes are booked. I can handle the planned events. What throws me are life’s unexpected curve balls, huge happenings that no calendar could ever predict.
And 2007 was full of them.
But I’m still here. So are you.
And that’s the great thing about a new year. No matter what the previous year was like, if we survive it, we get another chance for a do-over, make-over and start-over.
Curve balls aside, we are the masters of our own calendars. We can write in ink. We can erase. We can staple and we can scribble. It’s our calendar. We own it.
I stopped writing a few minutes before midnight so Bruce and I could step outside and toast the new year. We shivered as we took in the night’s stillness. We live so far from city lights that the dark sky pops and glitters with stars so bright that they almost look fake.
At midnight, the stars and constellations were so peaceful and majestic; such a glaring contrast to the neighboring celebratory gunfire that exploded for many country miles. Pop, pop, pop, pop. Pop. Pop. Boom.
It’s 2008 in Igo. And it’s 2008 wherever you are.
I wish you and yours a new year filled with hope, true friendship and lasting love.
I wish you strength and courage to find your dreams and achieve success.
I wish you health of body and mind.
I wish you only pleasant surprises.
For 2008 and hereafter, I wish you as many opportunities and ideas and chances for do-overs as there are stars in the sky.
And lots of white space for writing.
