CLEAN SLATE

When you're on the brink of something seemingly new, it just seems like a great idea, doesn't it?

New Year ... New Life ... New You.  Everything gets ... Capitalized and intensified with hope and promise.  As they say, "Out with the old and in with the new."

You've got a clean slate.

As I'm writing these words, I'm sitting here in my living room where the fireplace is roaring and the tealight candles are flickering from a slight draft that's wafting from God knows where. It's not yet time for that grand countdown, but we're close enough for me to feel pressed by the need to pound out these words so that I can perhaps make sense of the past year and get poised for the days to come.

I could sit here and ponder and wonder and dwell in what has passed, but that's the point, isn't it?  It has passed.  It's over. 

No matter how much we fret and regret, what's done really is done.  Parting with the past is often tough because even though yesterday is over, we still carry the bruises, scars and sometimes triumphs of what has come ... and gone. 

So what is the wisdom of this moment?  Carry on, I suppose.  This past week, a popular radio show host who I loved to listen to passed away.  I'm stunned.  You can get so close to the finish line and not see the dawning of another year.  For all of our stresses and struggles and sometimes victories, at the end of the day, it comes right back down to dust to dust.  You may see another year, but no one gets out alive.

And yet, given that, I look onward with great expectation.  What can I make happen this year?  Who will I meet?  Where will I go?  What will I see?  Will my ship finally come in?

Those delightful twins, anticipation and expectation lift me up, wipe me off and give me a clean slate.  I can make amends for past failures by learning from them and moving on with a sense of grace and gratitude.  I don't have to wallow in the mud. 

As the new year dawns and the old one fades away, I know that at the end of this day, it's not even about me.  It's about what I can contribute in the best possible way.  I'll wash away what's no longer needed and with this clean slate, I'll move forward and onward and take on the new day.  And there's no better way to start than by saying ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR.  

ARTBOOKGUY™ - ART FOR ALL PEOPLE^® - A COLLECTOR'S JOURNAL^® - Straight Talk On Contemporary Art™ 

Michael K. Corbin - Owner/Editor/Administrator  Copyright ©2010.  All rights reserved