What a year it’s been. Full of everything from the distracting and discouraging to the delicious and delightful.
About a decade ago, my friend Kate gave me a recording of a song that was not (until recently) published: What a Year For a New Year by Dan Wilson.
The song opens with these words:
What a year for a new year
We need it like we needed life I guess
Last one left us lying in a mess
What a year for a new year
The first time I heard the song, I thought, “Wow, that is uniquely true this year.”
But every year I listen to it, I think the same thing, “Wow, the last one really did leave us lying in a mess.” I’ve come to think instead that this is the way life cycles around: time goes by and a bunch of stuff happens and some of it is great and a lot of it is hard and it happens every year.
Here at the end of 2022, I invite you to listen to Dan Wilson’s beautiful song and contemplate all of what’s happened and how all of it feels and know that whatever it is, it’s part of the universal human experience.
The last lines of the song are
Let it go without a trace
Wipe the teardrops from our faces
Oh! What a year for a new year!
Let it go and take a breath. Let’s see what cycles through next.