Ring In the New Year

New Year's celebration in the Philippines (Source: wikipedia.org)

More than the merriment of Christmas, the dawning of a new year has always been my personal favorite holiday. Christmas is about Gratitude and Togetherness -- definitely good things – but it could easily turn into loneliness and melancholy for those who have missed out on their share of G and T for the year.

New Year is different. It offers hope and optimism, the twin gifts that make life worth anticipating and living. For those who’ve had a glorious year, the wish is for more to come. For those who’ve had a lousy one, the beginning of a new year brings on reasons to look forward to a better one. No one is immune from its promise.

For those who are getting on in age, a new year can be both exhilarating and sobering. One more year down, yehey! And then the inevitable question: how many do we have left? Mortality is always the elephant in the room when seniors celebrate the coming of another year.

Twenty six years ago when we began our new life in the United States, 2015 was like the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel for me, the end goal, the year that will mark the beginning of the rest of my life. Now it’s here and I’m alternately grateful that I’m still around to enjoy it, and greedy with anticipation for the new experiences it will allow me, as a retiree, still generally healthy, and newly re-married. The possibilities, while no longer endless, are nonetheless boundless, extending as far and wide as my imagination and my adventurousness can go.

So here’s to a year of new beginnings and multicolored memories. May we all continue to be tethered to our hopes, dreams and ambitions, and most of all, to each other.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, ONE AND ALL!