A New Year: Are you excited or daunted?

Not everyone starts the year with optimism. For some, the previous year may haunt them with sadness, regret, remorse. The greeting 'Happy New Year' becomes hollow and meaningless. For those of you struggling with a turning point, I offer this poem from Donna Ashworth:

When I say ‘happy new year’, 

I’m not for a moment,

expecting this to occur,

for that is not possible, 

a year must be all things.

Happiness must come and go, 

like the tides and the winds, 

just as sadness, 

and all the emotions in between.

When I say ‘happy new year’,

I’m really wishing you,

a baseline of peace,

of gratitude. 

Because if you can sit with these things, 

for the most part, 

happiness will thrive, 

when it does arrive, 

and sadness will know its place in the mix.

If you can nourish these things, 

daily, 

you will also grow hope, 

for it flourishes in such soil.

And hope is the key,

to this enigmatic state

of ‘happiness’ we seek.

When I say ‘happy new year’,

I’m really wishing you more happy days, 

than sad days, 

more joy than misery,

more laughter than tears… 

and the wisdom to accept,

that they all belong.

Happy new year, my friends.

Happy new year.