A New Year

It might be the unseasonably mild temperatures (58 degrees for January in Indiana is like finding an extra 20 dollars in your coat pocket) but this year, more than any other, I feel content, hopeful and optimistic. I can’t say I’ve formalized any particular New Year’s resolution but I am anxious to make my dreams a reality. Writing this piece and others like it is one of them. It occurred to me this week that I have much more than I need and nearly everything I want – at least of those things in my circle of influence. I am blessed with good health, great family and first rate friends. I earn enough to pay my bills (although I can’t quite swing the vacation in the south of France yet) and I have heat when I need it, enough to eat and an expectation of safety and privacy.

The things that I want these days are not things at all. I want a healthy and sustained life style (and, yes I still have pounds to shed like two thirds of us). I want to live creatively. I want health and happiness for my family. All that I want in within reach - anything, if not everything.

It makes me thankful on many levels – for having a job in a shaky economic environment; for living in a country that provides ample opportunities, freedom and options; for living in a time when we can extend and improve the quality of our lives.

Like all of us I’ve had crummy jobs, crummier bosses, false friends, disappointments and lost loves. But these days I’m looking at those things in my rearview mirror rather than at the road ahead.