Greeting 2011

It was a quiet morning. The Christmas fever had ended and the new years day had dawned, the memories of the passing year had started crowding the mind. The year bygone was no doubt an eventful year, both personally and professionally. So many things had happened, some I had long waited for, some I had never dreamed of. 365 days had passed. With passing days passed 12 months, with passing months passed 1 whole year.

Days, months, years, decades... all mere units of measuring the fast flowing time. Time has its own speed of passing; it's we who interpret its speed in different ways. For some time flies, for some it steadily flows, for some it drags, for some it just goes. 2010! One of those many years which keep coming and going every time? Or an eventful year that shall be cherished for long?

Passing time is never bothered about whether it is being spent, utilized or wasted. It's we who should be concerned about what we are filling it with. Are we killing time or filling every passing minute with joy? Are we feeling the time pass or is time just reeling? It's we who need to think.

And I thought of doing just that, on the first day of the new year. I planned to 'think', think of all that had happened in and around me in the year that had gone by. I had to gather all the precious moments of the last year and treasure them deep in my mind; all of this, before they would become faded memories. I woke up and looked out to greet the rising sun, the first sun of the new year.

It was a quiet morning. I had forgotten to bid the last sun of 2010 a goodbye, but I was very much there to welcome the arrival of this 'new' sun. There was something different about the first sun of 2011. It seemed to have brought in new hope, new aspirations and new dreams. That morning had made a new beginning, the beginning of a new year. There were so many things to be done this year, some promises to be kept; some little dreams to be realized, many personal goals to be achieved... so many things to be done!

It was early morning of the new year's day when I woke up and a strange calm seemed to fill the air. It was as if the whole world was still fast asleep. There was no noise in the air; there were only sounds of the rustling leaves and the chirping birds. I started the day with a hot cup of coffee; my very first coffee of the new year. Then I decided to listen to what I had to say to myself. There was so much to say, so much to be heard, all the pending discussions between me and myself. Things of all those times I had not heeded to what my heart had to say, things of all those times when I had ignored myself. Busy looking at the world around, it had been long since I had seen myself. I began pursuing my inner self. "Long time no see", I said to ME and WE spent the whole morning discussing all that had happened last year, all that I had discovered in me, all the new things I had found about myself, all the small ways in which I had grown, all those mistakes I had learned from and all the joys and sorrows that had added 'experience' to my life.

The experience of one whole year that had prepared me to face new challenges that new year might pose and greet all the nice things that 2011 might have in store for me. How has the last year been for you? What are your plans for 2011? Any new year resolutions? Laugh more, frown less; be more truthful, fake less; read, don't just skim, express, don't just write; say it, don't fear, listen, don't just hear. Resolve to meet new people, make more friends; and most of all, be friends with yourself. Fall in love all over again, with yourself, and with life. Happy new year!