Happy New Year !!!
The turning of the calendar, the “ringing in” of another year and the farewell to the one gone by can be a time of circumspection or palpable anticipation. For me it is both at the same time. For me, the ending of a calendar year brings with it a kind of new focus to a season already in full power.
When I reflect on the year 2005 and measure the enjoyments, achievements, and experiences I have had; I am immediately excited about what I can do better, offer more concisely and even forget more gracefully. All years are not the same and surely 2005 will go down in the “Hampson Diaries” as one of the most turbulent in recent history. Mind you, I don’t mean that negatively, I mean it literally like a flight from there to wherever, with all the kind of flying conditions you can imagine in one flight; dark clouds, rough starts, storms as well as clear skies, boundless vistas and gentle landings. I’ll let you replace the metaphor of choice with the event of your liking.
I am really writing this little note to say thank you. Thank you for your flying with me, even keeping me in flight on occasion; but most of all for just plain caring about what we all should think, study, enjoy, critique and most especially cherish.
I cherish health, freedom, curiosity, family, and fate. I wish all of you reading this now, at the beginning of 2006, not only those things I cherish, but as well the patience, fortitude and respect you afford yourselves in that you have afforded them to one like me in such generous proportions this past year.
“The spirit in which a thing is given determines that in which the debt is acknowledged: it’s the intention, not the face-value of the gift, that’s weighed.” (Seneca 5BC-65AD)