Baby New Year 2017, with your little linen diaper, your jaunty top hat, your shrill little noisemaking horn - I like you already!  Your kin, the turbulent 2016, is old, weathered, withered, and bowing its head in shame.  Truth be told though, your older sibling gave me some really beautiful gifts, like a trip to Chopra to study meditation in silence, a deeper commitment to my spriituality, trips to Disney, a Harry Potter-themed party (wherein I cosplayed Sybill Trelawney NON-STOP), a wonderful turn as The Princess Puffer in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", and directing a readers theatre version of "A Christmas Carol".  Many outings were enjoyed, parties planned, friends reconnected with.  I thank 2016 for those gifts.  But I can't forgive the darkness of November, the tears shed over those left to the ages.

2017 is a "One" year, which indicated new beginnings.  2017, I send you toddling into the joyous ether, grateful for the new, clear horizons.