New Year's Day 2010

I love New Year's Day. It is my favorite day of the year. I know, Christmas, my birthday, my wedding anniversary all ought to come in as favorites over January 1. Those other days are great, there's no doubt. But January 1 is the one day of the year that, to me, has the most emotion and purpose.

I love to get up in the morning, after having celebrated the start of the new year, and start getting things done. I take down the Christmas decorations and clean the house top to bottom. Many people do spring cleaning. I do new year cleaning. I make soup and get the laundry done. I find places for the presents that we got on Christmas. I bring order and calmness after the whirlwind of the holiday season. I look forward to these activities every year. It's my way of restoring normalcy.

January 1 is when I look at the year that's just passed. I think about things that I've done to others. I think about things that others have done to me. I put the memories in their places. The good memories and the bad are tucked away. Some are to be captured for all time. Some are to be used as proof that there is good in the world. Some are there just to make me smile. Some are to teach me what I need to learn. Some are to be looked at and then forgiveness extended. I cry and I laugh and I feel the warmth.

More than that though, I look ahead to the year stretched out before me. I make resolutions that I often keep, but not always. I give myself permission to let some of the resolutions go. I evaluate who I am and what I have done and what I want to do. I'm not a person who makes goals for myself. But I do want every year to be a better one, both in how I treat others and in how others see me. I want to be a better person. I want to let God do His work in me and take the changes He wants to make with grace. I want to see people through his eyes. I want to find more things about myself that I like and fewer things that I don't.

It's the one day of the year that I am most reflective about the future. Can I be more helpful? More giving? Can I express myself better? Can I let the people that I love know that I love them so that they really understand?

Now, I know that people can do that sort of thing any day of the year. January 1 is the day that I set aside to do it. The time feels right. There's no job to go to. The visitors are gone. I purposefully make no plans for that one day so that the day is all mine. We all have heard "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." That works for any day of your life. For my life, I've chosen New Year's Day as the day to reflect and evaluate. Happy 2010!!