Clean Slate

What is it about the change of one digit in the enumeration of years that makes January 1 feel different?

I’ve been rereading my bullet journals for 2018, notes from our travels, lists of books I’ve read (the only way I can remember is to write them down) and films I’ve seen, other flotsam and jetsam that contain clues about how I spent the past year. If I didn’t keep such copious records, it would all be a blur.

I go through this ritual twice a year⎯in the fall, for the Jewish High Holidays, with a spiritual focus, and in December, when I reflect on my work and creative goals and priorities for the coming year. It always feels good to take that step back and appreciate the good, learn from the mistakes, and decide what’s most important moving forward.

But why at the year’s turn? Or rather, why only at the year’s turn? New Year’s is truly just another day, another turn of the Earth on its orbit around the Sun.

It’s all too easy to get swamped by the details and challenges that each day brings. But I try to remind myself as I write this, a daily pause to reflect can make each sunrise feel like a clean slate. What am I grateful for? What do I want to accomplish today? What worked? What didn’t? What can I learn from the experience? Sounds like a plan, regardless of the calendar.

And so, Dear Reader, I share that resolution with you, as well as best wishes for a healthy, fulfilling 2019⎯every day of the New Year.

Evelyn Herwitz blogs weekly about living fully with chronic disease, the inside of baseballs, turtles and frogs, J.S. Bach, the meaning of life and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at livingwithscleroderma.com. Please view Privacy Policy here.

Image: Ian Schneider