Discarded Feather  Zion National Park                    click to enlarge

It’s a another year gone by in the blink of an eye, or a nano second, the new way we measure things, we no longer use what was the standard for measurement of things that happened really quickly, the old standby “New York minute”. New York minutes have gotten so slow they’re now used to measure turtle races, or my pulse as I watch Tournament Bridge on TV. Last year has been discarded into the past to become nothing more than a memory. Yours may have been good or may have been bad but there is one thing for sure, it’s history now. We can do nothing but face the future and journey through this new year with our best intentions and try to make it the best year we can.

Some of us have the good fortune, or is it misfortune, to be able to have a year very much like the one that just passed. Others of us can have a year that can be anything we want it to be. We can fill it with joy or despair. We can have incredible new beginnings, or for the less adventuresome a nice slow steady year that brings a level of contentment that is as satisfying in its own way as any satisfaction can be. Sort of like the choice for breakfast between Shrimp Diavalo with a good red wine or perfectly cooked eggs with buttered toast and hot coffee. Some of us can even have it all. At least once in a while. I personally prefer the contentment option with a few high energy E-rides thrown in unexpectedly.

Lots of people take this opportunity to make resolutions for the coming year, to set up huge goals and lofty ambitions. I say to hell with resolutions. Life puts enough pressure on us every day and to add more by assigning ourselves unrealistic goals that we would have accomplished last year, if we really meant to, just adds another layer of angst to our lives that we don’t need. The things that are meant to change will, with or without any help from us. Give yourself a break.

It is a new year. 2014. The old year is dead, Long live the new.