Happy New Year. It seems hard to imagine that it is 2019. Oh not that we made it thus far. Despite Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un and their threats of nuclear anihilation, I really did expect that the world would reach the year 2019. But what really seems hard to mention is that my child hood and teen age years are that much further behind me. Things like I graduated from university 35 years ago this year. On July 20th, it will have been 50 years ago since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon (and I can remember watching that on television). The passage of another year does not mean that we have just made another orbit around the sun. It means our memories are a further years distant.
Starting a new year, always means possibilities. Those with bad habits such as smoking or drinking will attempt to make changes with the coming new year. Some will be successful while most won't be. But the changing of the calendar seems to be just as good a time as any.
Much was made of the fact that at this year's fireworks in Sydney harbour, the people put the wrong date in on the display and we seemed to welcome 2018 all over again. Such mistakes are rare now. But in the past, much more than now, New Year's was often a time of confusion. Remember cheques. We had to date cheques and had to remember to change the year from one year to the next. Now with automatic banking and direct deposit, who needs to think about cheques. And remember writing letters. We had to remember to change the year on letters that we wrote. Now my computer and word processing programme do that for me.
My wish for you is for a good New year. May things go well for you. May you be up to facing the challenges that await you this year. For those of you who had a good year last year, may your luck continue. For those who had an awful 2018, may your luck improve. For those of you who make resolutions, may you have the strength to keep them.For those who don't make resolutions, may you lead the best life possible. Happy New Year.
