WELCOME 2014!

No year is ever entirely horrible.  In 2013 some great people were born.  People extended kindnesses to strangers.  Heroes emerged.  My daughter and I found a way to reach out to you.  But, I heard wrenching stories from all around me—sickness, injury, cruelty, disaster, disappointment.  My impression was that I heard more terrible stories than usual.  I suffered a few unhappy tales myself.  I’m not at all sorry to stop writing 2013 on my documents.

A new year reminds us that life, like our skin, is constantly renewing itself.  A new date is a new opportunity to be brave, kind, and wise.  It’s a new chance to see our troubles as challenges, not defeats.  It demands that we use fresh vision to examine the world around us, looking for the positive and overcoming the negative.  We are asked to recall that the people and events in our lives—whether the good or especially the bad–can be teachers to take us to new insights, if we’re willing to see them that way.

Toward that end, allow me to wish all who meet me here a fulfilling, joyful 2014.  May our connection with one another help us all.