Happy New Year. What does that really mean to most people? Well, I’d like to humbly share my beliefs.
Let’s start with “Happy. ” For me, happiness starts with my faith and love for God. He is my foundation and the place I live and breathe from.
I thank God for my physical, mental, and emotional health. I praise him for the blessing of opportunity, the ability to fulfill my purpose, and the abundance that is cultivated as a result. As humans, we all find an attraction to “New.
” I like the smell of a new car, the feeling of visiting a new country, and the hope of a new day. When things are new, there is a childlike wonderment and the unlimited potential of what could be. Newness brings curiosity and anticipation that everything is possible.
New is the yin that amplifies the yang of the well-seasoned things we love, like our home and the familiar sounds our family fills it with. It gives me a deeper value for all the years I have been gifted to live my best life. I once wrote to my wife in a song, “I can never be someone new, but I will always be the one for you.
” I think this best paints the picture of what I am trying to share. When I think of “Year,” so many things race across the landscape of my mind. As the year comes to an end, there is a sense of finality.
We can never live the past year again. We can feebly grasp onto its memory, like a blind man in the dark searching for his way out. The end of another year is also the somber reality that I have more years behind me than I do in front of me.
The happy yin to that yang is that I am grateful to have lived another year to its fullest and look forward to one more, to be a better version of myself through service. So the year as a whole is a time of gratitude for the lessons and knowledge learned. A learning we take into the new year to create opportunity and even more memories.
Happy equals purpose. New equals hope. Year equals grateful experiences.
Purpose, hope, and gratitude. That sounds like the lattes I make by hand for my wife and me every morning. A practice I have shared is that every night at midnight, I say to myself, “Happy New Year!
” It reminds me to be grateful for another day and all the blessings and challenges that came with it. It also helps me to wake up to each new one with that purpose, hope, and gratitude. As I reflect on these blessings, my hope for the New Year is to deepen my faith, strengthen my relationships, and continue serving those around me with purpose.
May this year be one of health, love, gratitude, growth, and meaningful connections for us all.