Here We Go

There’s nothing quite like the first days of a new year. All we can see is the unlimited horizon before us and cannot imagine ever reaching that place where the road and the sky collide even as we choose to forget we had that very same sense of hopefulness and eagerness about this time a year ago.

I always think of each new year the way I used to look at first snowfalls as a kid.

I will concede that I look at snow a lot differently now as an aging adult but back then, after peering out the window into the dark for hours, willing the daylight to come, and struggling to put on all the gear that Moms everywhere made us wear in the snow, we’d venture out slowly and carefully very aware of the first marks we made in that fresh snow. Usually, it was no more than the first sled ride across the backyard or the start of that first snow fort and we were all once again business as usual.

As I’ve traded my youth for knowledge (and still think I got gypped on that deal; wish I’d saved the receipt) I often feel it’s too bad we can't bottle that sense of unlimited optimism we had with that snow for this, the start of the new year, and have it in reserve to break it out when people and situations get serious and the going becomes harder, like tomorrow when the new year is just a little bit less new and all the days that will follow that one.

Some of us are daunted by the year that’s before us, wary with worries and questions that no one can answer and plagued by doubts and concerns that can and will only be addressed by the passage of time. If we’re lucky (and really does take more than luck) at some point in this year, we’ll look up and around and be surprised (and I hope delighted as well) with where we are and how far we’ve come. That will mostly be the result of ability, effort, timing and the help of others, I just hope we can remember that, especially that last one.

Here’s the deal: we made it to and through 2017. What’s done and gone is done and gone, make it a point to remember lessons learned and then move on. Let's all work on individual and community goals. Leave a little more for somebody else-perhaps take a slightly smaller piece of the pie as the plates get passed around and remember that lesson on the importance of sharing we learned back in kindergarten.

Norwich has a lot of things worth the time and talents of every interested resident and we can certainly use all the help we can get. We're not the only folks in the world, or Connecticut, struggling to make what we have better, but we're closest to it and can do the most good. Let's get started.
-bill kenny