The close of another year, the anticipation of a new year, remembering and hoping, all these things rolled into New Year’s Eve. For many, today will be a time for looking back, thinking of some milestone or marker in the past year. If you have bad memories of the past year, I hope they will at least be offset by good ones.
Tonight, Auld Lang Syne will echo down the corridors of a closing year, as folks around the world sing the song whose words are attributed to Robert Burns. “Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days of auld lang syne? And days of auld lang syne, my dear, And days of auld lang syne. Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days of auld lang Syne?” Yes, we are saying hello to a new year but we are not forgetting the people and events of the past year and other days, other times, long-ago times.
This year I’ve made new friends and old friendships have come to be even dearer. I’ve begun an exercise class and rounded up a group of wonderful ladies who like to read and write, called The Cozy Critters. I’ve completed my third cozy mystery. I’ve been privileged to witness milestones in the lives of my grandchildren and cheer them on in their successes. I’ve seen people work hard in the cause of freedom and read about courageous acts. It has been quite a year!
As Alexander Pope said, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” I prefer not to think of the New Year as a great unknown, looming up before me with potential for a lot of bad experiences. Instead, I greet it with the knowledge that God will be in 2014 just as He is in 2013. I’m also reminded that “By the yard, life is hard; by the inch, it’s a cinch.” So, I’ll just think of it not as a whole year suddenly thrust upon me, but one day at a time.
In the words of Robert Burns, let’s remember old friends and days gone by. Let us take with us into 2014 only the good, the lessons learned, the friendships deepened, the family ties strengthened. Songs, especially songs written a few years ago, sometimes contain wisdom for living. Here’s one that means a lot to me: “Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver, the other is gold.”
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