Welcome 2009!

As the new year rang in, fireworks exploded right on time outside of my apartment, a sound of celebration and triumph that fueled the excitement in my soul, as if someone were popping a bottle of champagne right in my sky. We have lived to see yet another new year, and that in itself is an amazing feeling. What caught my breath even more this year was that for one singular moment, I could almost feel the thronging good cheer of the masses of people all around me - common for once in our momentary jubilance. It is a feeling of sheer wonder, that people everywhere are bonded in ephemeral unison for this time of hope and reminiscence. I made sure to welcome the new year smiling and with unbridled optimism for the coming year, like a child beckons each new day.

I wondered about the cyclical nature of years, and the embedded optimism it confers: a time for endings and new beginnings, a time of resolutions and renewed faith. No doubt a manmade convention, but I wonder how things would be different for our spirits if we did not repeat months, if somehow this were month # 4094859898398281181198198, and there were no "new years". Just a thought.