First, the bad news.
Just like the day after the election, COVID-19 is still here. It doesn’t go away with a new year anymore than it did because politicians had finally won their offices.
Now, on with the good news.
We’re an optimistic bunch here, and with the calendar turned we’ll suggest that all of us are setting sail for the highest of highs in 2021. And truly, that’s where the new year mindset generally is for most people.
Even without the coronavirus.
Whatever your good luck charm to help things getting started, go for it. Collards, black-eyed peas, a little bit of both? Shop local and be ready.
Goals are fine to go after, but we’ll suggest they not be called resolutions.
We all know the deal there. First comes the resolution, and then comes the break in it. And because it’s new, our discipline — that which we should have had that would have eliminated the need for this charade — will be challenged.
How many personal New Year’s resolutions make it to Dec. 31 intact? We hope all, but we also know reality for the great majority.
Nothing wrong with trying.
And there is the freshness that a new routine can offer. It doesn’t have to be exercise and eating related, though that and finances probably rank as the most popular.
This year is already off to a different start. Yes, there are toasts and good cheer. Somewhere the Guy Lombardo version of Auld Lang Syne played, from New York City to New Mexico, from the Florida Keys to the Aleutian Islands. Sweethearts exchanged kisses, glasses clinked, and for a moment in time we let the worries and cares of today be secondary.
Newness, on this occasion, is embraced.
We welcome the mindset to believe all that drug us down in 2020 will no longer be our albatross. Yes, let’s forget the bad old times and say yes to remembering long-standing friendships.
In 2020, there was good and bad defining each of us. Yes, there was good, hard as that is to believe. There is much that made us stronger, that defined us a bit.
Remember what caused us to smile, to laugh and to cry. Our hearts grew with each, and we need them to be open in the coming year.
We need to be attentive, to be thinking about those around us in addition to ourselves. How can we help? How can we be good neighbors? How do others see us, and is it what we would want?
The calendar has turned, our journey in this life moving another day forward. In reality, it is nothing more — just another day. But mentally, we put so much more into it.
That’s OK, too. We need motivation, and the beginning of a new year brings an abundance for many people in many areas.
This should translate to good times.
We hope the very best for you in 2021.
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