"

Fresh starts. Thanks to the calendar, they happen every year. Just set your watch to January. Our reward for surviving the holiday season is a new year, bringing on the great tradition of new year’s resolutions. Put your past behind you and start over. It’s hard to resist the chance of a new beginning, a chance to put the problems of last year to bed.

Who gets to determine when the old ends and the new begins? It’s not a day on the calendar, not a birthday, not a New Year. It’s an event. Big or small. Something that changes us. Ideally, it gives us hope. A new way of living and looking at the world. Letting go of old habits, old memories. What’s important is that we never stop believing we can have a new beginning, but it’s also important to remember that amid all the crap are a few things really worth holding on to.