Happy New Year! With that statement comes everything we hope for this coming year. But what’s really new? Sure we’ve just been through the orgy of Christmas excess, eating, drinking and buying, where new things have appeared and within a week have become redundant.

Yes we’re going to attempt new things this year. Dieting, working out is in; smoking and excessive eating and drinking is out.  But isn’t what we call new, just really a recycling of the old.  What’s old is new again!  

Just look at what we were conned into buying, I mean purchased with much lovingly contemplation this year. The same old MP3 players, just now you can download 10,000 songs instead of 50. Elmo was back ...just a little more ticklish and annoying. Board games continue to make a strong showing and we never thought mousetrap or operation could be so much fun with the “Minnie mes” in our family. 

If this is the case, then maybe we should be sharing with one another Happy Same Year, or Happy Recycling Year. I hope 2007 is the same as 2006 or maybe 2005. Now I am sure we do not wish this sameness upon people who experienced sudden death and personal tragedy this past year.  But these events as difficult as they are will always be with us in their unpredictability and bizarre randomness. 

No, the change I am seeking and hope for all of you is the resolutions from within. How are we going to think and respond differently this year? How are we going to kick start that “Spirit” again?  That “Spirit” that was there in high school or college, when you felt such euphoria and enthusiasm for the world and one another.  

If we can help …check us out. The coming together of community in any organization can be a place to ‘get in shape’ when it comes to relivening our inner person.  May a diet of affirmation and belonging helps us along the way so that this year may be the one when our resolutions are resolved. 

Happy Year,