December 31, 2007

• Another year down

  Hi everyone.

  It's that magical time again. The time when the little number at the end of the date changes. We all get a year older, instantly. We begin a time of writing the incorrect date on important documents. Everything becomes fresh and new and wonderful and perfect.

  Well, perhaps not.

  So 2007 is rolling rapidly to a close, and many of us will take the opportunity to look back on the past 12 months and figure out what went right and what went wrong, which of our goals were met and which escaped us. Overall, are we satisfied with the result, or does the whole business leave us feeling somewhat lacking? I run into people who claim to live their lives without regret. They have that magical ability to make the best of any set of circumstances, to put a cheerful or at least productive spin on whatever comes their way. Or perhaps it's one of those people who know exactly what they want, and then just push constantly forward in pursuit of their goal. Alas, I fear I would be dishonest in numbering myself among those lucky souls.

  2007 certainly had its high points. I got to visit twice with my friend Byron and his lovely wife, I reconnected with some family I hadn't seen in a long time, and I made a couple of important decisions that will hopefully help me to move forward in my life in the months to come. I wasn't diagnosed with any major illnesses, nobody close to me died, I put food on the table and a roof over our heads. The fact that I'm far from being satisfied with how things went perhaps says more about my hopes than about the objective reality. It's a gift to be happy with the way things are at any given moment, but it's necessary to balance that sense of satisfaction with the drive to keep moving forward, to keep learning and improving. Lines from a Leonard Cohen song keep coming to mind: "I saw a beggar, leaning on his wooden crutch. He said to me 'you must not ask for so much'. And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door, she cried to me 'hey, why not ask for more?'"

  And so I bid adieu to 2007, cautiously optimistic that 2008 will bring big changes, and that those changes will be good. I mentioned last December that I had only made 14 posts here all year. Well I managed to better that this year -- this post makes a whopping 16! I have so many hopes for this year, so many wants, most of which I will keep tightly sealed in my heart of hearts, for fear that they won't come true. I need to hold myself to a much higher standard in terms of actions and getting things done. I need to be productive and interested and interesting again. I need to move forward!

  All the best to you. I hope that 2007 was everything you hoped it would be, and that 2008 will be even better. And for those who are sad or disappointed, all I can say is that in at least some ways, it's always possible to turn our lives around on a dime. We can keep learning, leave behind old baggage, look at things from a new angle, and just get up of our butts and be better!

  Take care
  -Justin-

  • 7:34 pm
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