A Sister’s New Year

The new year beckoned all week and finally arrived right on schedule.  My friend Patty, a closet astrologist kept telling me all through December that things would be changing in 2017.  So many people seemed anxious to see the backside of 2016.

Last night I went to a lovely little party given by my sister.  She had a nice smallish crowd and I met some new people.  My sis has had an extremely trying 2016 which began with a frightening health scare and surgeries.  It malingered and then morphed into other issues that left her unbalanced with scars I wasn’t sure she would ever recover from.  She’s doing great now and it was so nice to see her relaxed and enjoying herself.

New Year’s has many myths and superstitions.  I try not to buy into the perceived momentousness of the calendar turn and the resolutions that inevitably follow.  I think if one is motivated to make changes in life, they can do it just as easily on June 1st as January 1st.

But I do believe it is helpful to begin as we intend to proceed and so it was with some surprise as I drove home last night that I began to weep.  I thought of my sister and the expectations she had for her 2016 and how abruptly her dreams crashed.  I thought about her enduring suffering and her constant worries that continued unabated all last year.  But I also remembered the bright moment on Christmas Day when my niece said grace at dinner and how then the entire table raised their glasses to my sister in thanks that she is well.  “To Debbie”, we all chanted in unison as eyes brimmed over.  It was an inexpressibly tender moment…

So as I clutched the steering wheel on the dark road just after midnight, I called up my sister.  Through my tears I croaked out, “Happy New Year to you most of all”!  However, the tears were not a portent of things to come – they were merely the first blessing of the new year.  And that is how I intend to proceed.