I'm seeing it everywhere, headlines, Facebook, casual conversations: "2009 is finally over" and "2010, rescue us!!"
I don't know about you, gentle reader, but I think 2009 wasn't all that bad.
True, a lot of bad things happened to a lot of good people. I understand why the collective impulse is to wash our hands of the whole icky thing. Lost jobs, lost homes. It was a humbling or confounding phase for many.
But let's not fling 2009 away just yet.
What if, instead of greeting 2010 as we would the latest red carpet ingenue -- with reckless adulation -- or granting it our instant approval, as a certain Norwegian prizegiving entity did for a certain American president back in April -- with anxious optimism -- we hold off judgment and let 2010 earn our trust?
And what if we hold on to this year, this 2009, with all its jagged stock yields and crazy apologies and people stuck on runways because of airline incompetence? Hold 2009 close. Talk to it, get to know it, water it, feed it, let it grow into something new and completely unrecognizable.
Perhaps we'd be less poised for disappointment.
2009, by the way, was an excellent year for asking. Including:
-- two airfare vouchers, almost by accident.
-- R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Italian style.
-- an angry salon owner to give a woman back her job.
-- I also completed my daily experiment, analyzed the results and decided to keep going.
-- I discovered 88 lessons, a list that continues to be emailed and retweeted to this day.
(--I've also asked for a few things these past days, but I've been so busy I haven't had time to report them. Looks like I'll be kicking off 2010 with a piece of 2009.)
A few people have inquired what my New Year's Resolutions are.
I have none.
Because I'm always making resolutions. And keeping them? Now that's a different story ;) This moment, for example, I resolve to: get over this cold. Live every day like it's the start of a new year. And every night like it's New Year's Eve!
Now here's what I wish you, today and always: health, happiness, plenty of bubbly, a clear eye on the past when it's answers you're looking for, and the freedom to claim a new beginning and a better future whenever you most need it.
