My wishes for you in the new year

 Today is New Years Day. The old year is gone, the new year has begun. Happy New Year!

I hope this year to you is not a second chance to succeed where you've struggled or fallen. I hope instead it's a new beginning on a clean slate, with no record of past wrongs.

I hope someone tells you "I love you," and I hope that you say “I love you” too.

I hope you rediscover the pleasures of touch: on the hair, on the arm, the face, the back.

I hope you're someone's priority this year, not just an option.

I hope that one of your dreams comes true, and another sees progress.

I hope you read, for pleasure, something you really enjoy; and the experience transports you to places familiar and new.

I hope you find your work meaningful and satisfying.

I hope you sing, by yourself and with friends.

I hope you seize the opportunity to dance, in the kitchen or in the living room, with someone you love.

When you cry, I hope you're not alone.

Also when you laugh.

I hope this is a good year for you. one where you make new friends, enjoy the company of old friends, and reconnect with friends whom you've forgotten.

Where you've been hurt, I hope you can extend grace if you can't forgive; and when you're alone I hope you reach out and take the hand of one more alone than you.

The old year is over, but it may take a while for us to escape the shadows it has cast, and longer still until it's been forgotten. But a new year is here, and it offers us a new beginning. That beginning is ours. If we take it. Together.

Happy New Year.