On this first day

On this first day of the new year, remember who decides if you will have a happy new year.

It’s not the politicians or the bankers. Not your boss or club leader or mother-in-law. Not the police, your fitness coach, or your priest. It’s not even your wife and children. We all affect each others’ lives in ways large and small. We all impact each other with our thoughts (or thoughtlessness) and our actions (or inaction). But it is what YOU think and feel and do – it is how you act and react – that matters. It is you who decides the character of your year. And your life.

There are so many examples of the blessed who curse their own existences, and the down-trodden who rise above. Some face seemingly insurmountable obstacles and overcome, while others are stymied by the smallest of hurdles.  More than anything, it is how they approach life, what they expect of life, what they DO with what they have that leads toward or away from joy.

So as you navigate the next 12 months, decide if you merely want to face the year or if you might embrace it instead. Perhaps instead of always reacting and responding, you might decide to act and initiate. Maybe you can carry the light rather than cursing the darkness. And, maybe your pursuit of joy might inspire someone else to choose a happy new year.

I wish for you great joy and an interesting year of light.

Happy New Year.