Everything must end. It should be possible to find as much joy in endings as there is in beginnings. Yet we cling to the present, and resist acknowledging when it is time to move on.

Each year we are given a small opportunity to learn to release the past. Each year ends, moving into our memories. On New Year's Eve, we think about starting the new year. But we are also ending the old one. It is a good time to examine our lives, seeking to discover what we cling to that needs to be released.

That release can bring joy. We only have to open our hands, and let it drift away — the relationship, the ambition, the craving, the addiction.

Whether it was once good or not, whether it was something we had held for a long or short time, we can now let it go. And as we do so, we can laugh in the freedom that follows.

~ Patricia Monaghan

[Art: Josephine Klerks ]

tks to the Cosmic Dancer