The end of any year is always more about fresh starts and hope more than anything else. Many are coming off the joy of the holiday season and are also thinking ahead to the future.

Of course, the tales of New Year’s resolutions that are broken are pure social comedy fodder, they are the punch lines for jokes told on the stages of many a water cooler or work site till next Christmas.

2017 also brought an old friend of mine from when I was away to some parts of Texas…snow. Sadly, I too have seen this cold white substance from the sky this year, but in Illinois, it is more the coming attractions before the feature presentation.

I was delighted to see Texas get to get in on some of the action though this year as it brought back memories of being in High School in El Paso in January of 1993 or so when a light ‘dusting’ of snow fell on the city. I recall many small accidents along I-10 and cars and trucks (this being Texas, that meant lots of trucks), sliding around the roads.

Of course, I was a veteran of Chicago winters and thought it was crazy to see my friends shivering and complaining about a day where conditions were what we might, during some Chicago winters  call a nice day of relief from the season of ice.

‘Drifting’ away from the weather a bit, personally for me the year was one of learning and closer to the time I am writing this, a time of some loss and some changes, but that is all right, Winter is the time when things sleep or grow tired only to awaken in the Spring, growing even further with the lessons learned in the Winter and the accumulated experience of all of the seasons that preceded it.

Even though in the Western world Thanksgiving is the time for gratitude and thankfulness, I also cannot help as the year draws to a close to express how lucky I feel to be able to speak with all of you for almost six years via this column.

Through it I feel we have explored topics that hopefully not only entertained but enlightened in some fashion or another or at the very least expressed my thoughts to all of you in an enjoyable and digestible manner.

So in the spirit of the above I will leave you with this and see all of you next year:

As we usher the new year in and usher the old man out,
Blank canvases await on the other side of the celebration.
New dreams will be forged without a doubt,
Filled with both hope and anticipation.

Constant cycle of measurement that stretches throughout our lives,
Cold to warmth to cold again before each year’s dawn.
Eternally grateful for each new year we see as it arrives,
As much as we are grateful for the past year that has gone.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
-TomSpy