We humans like to mark the passage of time with annual celebrations. Our birthdays become our own special day - then there are the big holidays - celebrated by most of the people in our country, or socio-cultural group. New Years Day is celebrated by much of the world now, and there's usually a sense of being able to leave the past behind and move on to new opportunities. There's no particularly good reason for the celebration to be on this particular day, about 10 days after the winter solstice. For cosmic alignment, one of the solstices or equinoxes would at least align the day with an observable event in nature. Instead, we're stuck with an abritrary day in early winter, because of the way someone long dead rejiggered their calendar, and we haven't gone to the trouble to rejigger it for ourselves since.
Why do we want to hang on to 365 days of accumulated baggage before we decide to let it go and move on to something better? It'd be far better to keep a clean sweep as we go, day by day. Then New Years Day would just be another day.
It did feel good though to think back on the major events of the past year and acknowledge the change that has happened. This year none of it felt like baggage to jettison, just good life experiences - doing some new things, meeting new people, growing and learning. If it's helpful to look back and review a highlight reel, maybe it's worth doing more often, while the memories are a little fresher, and if there is a lesson to be learned, it can be put to use sooner.
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