to draw to a close…

I have always found endings to be very bittersweet.

Closure can be frightening. A chapter is ending, and you don’t necessarily know what the next one holds. Goodbyes are hard, loose ends must be tied, and patterns that you have held will not necessarily travel with you. Reflection can leave you wanting or disappointed.

On another note, endings are exhilarating. You can set out into a new space with a fresh start, blank slate. You can let ambition run wild and set lofty goals. Adventure can occur and in the newness, there is hope.

Like all other endings, New Year’s Eve is also bittersweet.

Reflection can be both encouraging and hurtful. You may have reached your goals; you may have failed miserably. There may have been great moments that will remain highlights of your life, and you may have had the lowest of lows. Maybe 2017 was wrapped in both the beautiful and the broken, a chaotic entanglement of greatness and disappointment wrapped together.

Mine was.

Motivation is derived from both looking back and looking forward. Even though you may not like what you see as you look back on 2017, the sweetness of New Year’s Eve is that you stand on the brink of a new year: 2018. It is what you make of it; you don’t have to carry any disappointment or failures with you.

Isn’t it beautiful that calendars give us such clean slates? We don’t have to wait for a new year to start something, or even a new month, week, or day. Every moment can be made new, but I appreciate having such a clear cut break that establishes a difference.

As we draw this year to a close, I hope that you look back. I hope that you take into account all the failings and accomplishments, lows and highs that built a year unique to you. I hope you enter 2018 with lofty goals and dreams, and a motivation to make your world and the world at large a greater place.

Most importantly, I hope you realize that even when you fail in the new year, which is inevitable, the Creator of the universe has said His mercies are new EVERY MORNING. You don’t have to wait for an entirely new year to have a clean start, and you can find new life in HIM every moment you are alive.

Here’s to 2018. May it be wonderful.