HAPPY NEW YEAR

This is the time of the year when each of us should pause and reflect on all that has happened during the year that just passed. What was good? What was bad? What really did not have an impact upon us? To whom did we bid a fond farewell.

We need to understand how important it is that we learn to take the bitter with the better. We can neither change nor redo what has occurred in the year we are left. But it is possible for us to waste all of the experiences we have had if we fail to assess what has happened and use it as the basis for what we wish to accomplish in the year which lies ahead.

We must approach each new year with a clean slate, so to speak. Nothing is promised. Neither is anything guaranteed. We all have the opportunity to carve out a new road along which we can travel in the coming year.

We must then awake each day to the challenges which each of us will face at that time. Each day of the year will provide an opportunity to fill in the blanks in our plan for future success. Once this has been done, we can then begin to work to accomplish things on a day-by-day, case-by-case basis.

The message is simple: we all can change. We can plan new beginnings. We as Americans are privileged to live in a country where new beginnings are something which is encouraged. They are the very basis of our history as a nation.

Think about it. How many of our families came from foreign lands to build a fresh, new life here in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? Many of our forefathers set out to find a new land, just as many set out explore new opportunities and create new lives for themselves and their families. Many of them came past the Statue of Liberty and entered our great nation through the portals at Ellis Island.

They went on to create the lives which have led through the decades to the nation we enjoy today. But what was it like for them? What were their hopes and what were their fears?

As we begin the new year of 2024, let us approach the new year with equal parts of joy, anxiety, and anticipation. This year is laid out as a blank slate for each of us. Nothing will appear on that chalk board which is not written by each and every one of us. Let us all choose well.

For you. For us. Together.