Auld Lang Syne never fails to bring me to tears. New Year’s Eve is a farewell. We pause at the final boarding call of a new year and look around to see who and what is not traveling any further. We’ve measured our steps and counted our blessings, taken account of debts accrued and reconciled, as we prepared to wipe the slate clean once again.

But with that clearing we must bid farewell to the good, as well as the bad, and carry only the memories of those we leave behind. A good many of us require a farewell cup of courage as a sturdy rejoinder to numb our heart’s grief. We stand vigil, watching the fading edge of what we’ve known, fall away like the last view of the harbour, carrying us forward into a future that we hope will be kind to us and those we love. As myriad clocks strike the 12th bell, a rolling, tolling, call send its final note around the globe. We stand watch as the old year sets beyond the horizon and the new year calls us forward. It calls us to let the chains that weigh us down and bind us to the past be broken.

We let those chains fall away, although many of us will return to take them up again. We turn away towards the dark, unknown sea, trusting in the promise of another shore, another year, and better times ahead. A kiss is sought to mark the promise that we won’t be traveling alone, even though the crew might change. There’s time for one last wave to everything left behind as the past rolls beyond the horizon. An awkwardness grows when we spend a minute too long hanging on to the past in this new year. The moment passes, the tonics for our hearts have dulled the pain. We walk uncertainly to our beds unsure about what the dawn will bring but knowing that we have, at last, done all we can for the year now gone.

May you be free from the pain of your past, find your heart’s treasure in the New Year, and spend the present moment as you wish it to be.

Set course and hold her steady…

“Second star to the right and straight on ’til morning.” – J.M. Barrie