Hung over this morning? If so, sorry…if not, you must be either very young or getting older!!
Funny how we fixate on New Year’s. The night before, we are partying with friends and family – eating and drinking as if there will be no tomorrow. And for some, perhaps the morning of 1 January does feel like the end of the world. No worries – they’ll feel better on 2 January!
1 January.. Important to us, but not such a significant day in the Chinese or Islāmic or the Indian calendars, or the Ethiopian, Assyrian, Persian and Hebrew ones (there’s more than just the Gregorian and Julian calendars…poke around Wiki List of calendars – there’s over 46 in use now, and a few dozen archaic and 
proposed calendar formats out there. Just don’t go all Mayan on us…)
But, courtesy the Gregorian Calendar and its benefactor Pope Greg the 8th … 1 January is the day that starts off our new year and a new beginning for those in the “Western World”.
Forget the trouble, strife and anxiety of 2012…anything is possible and everything can be altered for the good in 2013.
Really, I don’t think it is that simple. If it was, I’d be thinner, healthier, richer, smarter, more productive, more organised, better focused than I am now – the perfect role model to whoever cared.
But, life is not like that.
The omnipresent New Year’s Resolutions have never worked for me. I do not believe that my resolve is any stronger on 1 January than it was on 31 December, or than it will be on 1 July or 9 October. Taking stock of the number of people who fade away from the cardio room ar the Gym by mid January, I’d say that sentiment is fairly universal.
Personally, I have made very few resolutions on New Year’s Day. I quit smoking, (the last time), on a March 29th – okay maybe the end /beginning of the fiscal year – but not really a New Year’s Day. And many other of my life defining decisions have been made on any number of Gregorian dates – I have not waited until the new calendar was placed on the refrigerator.
But 1 January feels important. It is the day that marks a clean sheet, a new start. And more importantly, new promise.
And that We, full of our positive energy from a happy Christmas, full of kinship and food and spirits, wish to spread our recent joy across into the new year. A time when focus all our well-wishes and optimism in the hope that it will make everyone’s lives better. When we hope that everyone has a happy, and healthy, and prosperous new year. That everyone gets a chance to realise their dreams, to succeed in the face of challenges, to feel secure and safe; to be free of fear, of worry, of pain, of anger, of disappointment, of distress, frustration, disillusionment, regret, panic, and apprehension.
And in this time of relaxation and repose, of reflection and thought – and before we return to our routine and obligations and livelihoods – it is the time of year to hope for lofty dreams. To hope that this is the year that people of different faiths show more tolerance andunderstanding so that their children
can grow without seeing violence and hate as the only options. That this is the year that we figure out how to feed and water a growing population without wasting our resources or damaging our planet. That this is a year that we challenge and defeat a number of afflictions and diseases and syndromes that result in needless deaths – deaths that are either violent and unforeseen, or lingering and inevitable.
I know we all wish that for each other throughout the year – not just on 1 January. But what better time to say it…then when we are all thinking of everybody?
And while the road may be rocky – with the help of friends and family, it is never impassable. I wish everybody a very happy 2013 – one of challenges and growth, of joy, love, fulfillment and fun.
Later,
ASF
January 1, 2013
asimplefellow
asimplefellow 