A Brand New Year!!

At my new job in Baltimore, I work with a young woman with disabilities who has a very hard life at home. She dreads the weekends, when she has to spend two days sitting in her house with nothing to do. She spends those two days in solitude, waiting for Monday. Finally, it arrives.

"Good morning, K.," I offer weakly as she prances into the classroom, oh-so-early. "How are you?"

"Quintuple awesome!" she responds, staring at me intently. "It's a Brand New Week!"

As often as it's happened, it still gives me pause. I kind of hate my job here (or at least, I extremely dislike certain parts of it), and Mondays are difficult for me. I drag myself out of my warm little bed, traipse through the frigid, dirty, city air, and arrive at the school building with resentment and bitterness lurking around the corners of my heart. Then K. arrives, full of life and enthusiasm, and jerks me awake, reminding me that today, and the next day, and the next, are all pieces of a Brand New Week. An unknown, unformed Week, which can be shaped either by my resentment, or by my gratitude.

So now it is December 31st. As I reflect on the year behind me, and anticipate the year to come, it occurs to me that this is a Brand New Year. Formless, empty, full of possibility, ripe for living, loving, growing, and being.

So, friends, tell me (and please note that this is a question, and not a rhetorical device): what are you going to do with your Brand New Year?