Thursday, December 29, 2011

Hope and Newness of a New Year

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Only a few more days until the big New Year's celebration.  Out with 2011 - and in with 2012.  For me New Year's is always a time full of hope...a time of putting away the bad memories of a year that is ending and moving into a year of making good memories.  After all, when those bad memories do come to mind they will now have the date "2011" attached to them, and I will be living in 2012!  The New Year is a time of promise... there are new chances, new opportunities, new adventures.  

Several years ago I was very blessed to bring in the New Year in New York City - it was definitely a dream come true!  I was 39-yrs-old, and was there to bring in the New Year as well as my 40th birthday (which happens to be January 2).  Can you believe that somehow on New Year's Eve we ended up in the very front coral - right at the main stage!?  There are a lot of less than awesome things I could share about that afternoon and evening (like how badly I had to pee - and you couldn't leave once you were in there unless you didn't want to come back.... or how COLD it was {it was even snowing some of the time!}...).... but the awesomeness was the part I remember the most.  It was snowing - and snow is something else that makes me think of hope and newness.  The crowds were incredible - but everyone was kind to one another.  And when the ball finally dropped, and the confetti started falling from heaven and all you could hear from anyone around was "Happy New Year" I could not help but to have tears running down my frozen face.  And it was amazing to look around and see so many other people with tears in their eyes, running down their cheeks.  It was simply magical.  The feeling that something had truly clicked over from 2005 to 2006 and had brought MORE hope and MORE promise for a better year... new chances... new opportunities... it was incredible. And most incredible was sharing it with over a million other people right there in New York City.

This year, wherever you are when the countdown starts, try not to include the negative things about 2011 in your thoughts of hopes and wishes.  Concentrate on the NEW hopes, wishes and dreams that come with the New Year.  And pray that the negative things of 2011 stay right there in that past. 

It's only December 29th.... so please come back again, as I'm sure I'll have a lot more to write about New Year's in the next few days!  

Thanks for being here with me.... and I truly hope you'll stay with me in the New Year!!!