a brand new year!

If you are like me, you'll spend the next few days writing 2021 on things and saying, "next year" when you really mean "this year," because despite all of the noise we make every year on New Year's Eve, there really isn't a magic sign that shows us that anything is at all different. Today began pretty much like all days begin and so it will be for tomorrow and the day after. Yet something did indeed happen at midnight last night - the same thing that happens every December 31st. One year ended and another began.

There is something that didn't happen today too.  We didn't have our beloved Betty White.  You no doubt have already heard the sad news of her passing yesterday, but I just had to mention it here.  Betty was one of those people I like to write about here - someone who truly made a difference, and she will be missed!

Our magazines and news programs remind us of the other famous people we lost in the past year. For many, there were also private memories of family members and friends who died. COVID-19 is still causing so many of those deaths. We looked at progress, or the lack of it and news stories that touched our lives. What I kept hearing last night was that 2021 had let us down.  Of course, I heard the same kinds of things said a year earlier about 2020!

 

We don't control all that happens around us of course, but we can control how we think about it and from where I sit, there was an awful lot of good last year!  I rejoice in my new friends and the time spent too with old ones.  I'm thrilled that people seem to finally be caring about human rights.  It seems to me like more people are getting involved and making a difference.  I know that I am certainly not running out of things to write about here.

 

Will 2022 be good to us?  Will we be good to it?  We can certainly help to paint the picture.  It's a brand-new year.  Let's make it the best one ever!