And so cometh the end of yet another year…

Actually, I don’t say this lightly.  There is something about the “New Years” holiday that affects me more than any other.  Maybe it’s the sudden, brutal awareness of how much “time” has passed without me being very aware of it.  Or the realization that I haven’t accomplished what I really wanted to—again.  Or even looking forward to another year and trying to think of it as a “clean slate”, while you’re immersed in the dregs of winter and your brow-beaten intellect knows you could look at ANY day as a new beginning if that’s what you were after.

But this blog post is not about that kind of negativity.  This blog post is about CELEBRATING the passage of another year.

Why celebrate?

Because you effing survived it.

And yes, while that might seem like something to take for granted—it’s not.  I attended enough unexpected funeral services this year to testify to that.

So, if you set a few goals at the beginning of this year and achieved ANY of them…celebrate.

If you’ve maintained a warm, dry place for you and your family to live and laugh and love…celebrate.

If your body is functioning well enough for you to do so…celebrate.

If the publishing demons haven’t driven you completely away…if you’ve written so much as a few paragraphs for yourself that made you want to write more…celebrate.

If you’ve read something you absolutely loved, something that captivated you and took you to another place outside of you at anytime during the past 365 days so you can say the art is still alive…celebrate.

If you survived the drought, the hurricane, the blizzard, the shootings, the campaign ads, or all of the above…celebrate.

I could go on and on with this, but the point stands.

Technically, it may not have been one of the best years for you.  Technically, it may have downright sucked.  So what is there to celebrate about that?

You made it through.  And that means you’re probably a lot tougher than you thought.  So give yourself a pat on the back, pitch your tent in the new, continue to look beyond just surviving, and…