“Last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.”  T.S. Eliot

Several years ago I wrote an autobiography called, “Stages – a Memoir.”  The book was written mainly for my family as a record of my life and the different stages a woman goes through from infancy to the golden years.

As I look back at my past, I see that I’ve only just begun this journey of mine.  A new year is coming and we can pack up 2016, but also look at it as lessons learned and many tasks completed.  If we dwell too much on the negative aspects of this past year, we can easily become depressed.

What we need to do is look at a list of different words for next year.  For example – disappointment could be viewed as opportunity for something better. Frustration might turn to invention of something that would fix it.  The word hopelessness  could lead to a passion for something completely unexpected.  Failure in one area of life can lead to success in another.

As a writer, it’s my goal to try to present my words in a different way.  Last year’s words are old fashioned, the minute we write them.  Nothing new under the sun?  Well, maybe, but any artist knows that they need to practice their craft on a daily basis.  As a human being, with many flaws, I also know that I often don’t use the right words to express myself.

2016 was filled with so much junk.  It started out with a complete down size of an accumulation of 52 years of marriage, putting our house up for sale, looking for a new one, changing direction in career paths, giving up and letting go.

In the midst of all this was the everyday stuff like several teeth extracted from my sweet husband’s mouth, a car broken down, having many friends passing away or facing life threatening diseases. Around us there were wars, disrespect for all lives, and a political circus leaving us with very little choice.  There were terrorist attacks, murders, natural disasters and guess what?  These things will go on.  They have for at least the 74 years that I’ve been living.

As long as we live, we will have bumps in the road and hiccups along the way.  Some will be harder to handle than others, but they are all manageable if we stop trying to fix things on our own.

I pray that each of my friends and acquaintances, enjoy a blessed new year.  I also pray that words like impossible, doubt, fear, anxiety take a smaller place in your vocabulary and are replaced with doable, security, peace and contentment, take their place.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I mean HAPPY FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!