New Years is my favorite holiday.

It’s not about the parties. Or countdowns. Or the chance for nostalgic reflection.

For me, the air seems lighter on the morning of January 1st. I really do think there is more possibility, more freedom to change this day. It’s like making a new friend, who doesn’t know what you’re always like, who doesn’t yet have expectations for how you’ll act, who doesn’t carry with them the weight of years of shared history. It is easier to reinvent yourself as someone closer to the person you’d really like to be.

It’s not that I don’t love old friends. I love that K and I have joint memories that go back to childhood. And I’m comfortable with how much we are all shaped by our pasts. But I don’t think our pasts need to determine our futures. In striving to be a better person, in big ways (more generous, more kind), in small ways (more able to get out of bed in the morning), I like clearly demarcated new beginnings.

The world may not have changed over night. I still woke up to dirty dishes and a sick hen (our little Coco) this morning. I expected no less. But I may have changed over night. Not magically from the outside by a clock or calendar, but because just now I’ve decided to. And maybe I didn’t keep to my resolutions last year. But that was the old me. The new me might.

PS The image is K’s desktop calendar for the month. Download it for your computer here.