By Katy Curry©

Well, here we are not quite a month into 2017.  A new year supposedly brings with it hopes for fresh starts and better beginnings.  I think I will wait and see.  So far, just 18 days into the new year and this country is tearing itself apart because of the elections.  You know, when you are about to get a new leader for the country, for the free world, you would think everyone would want him to succeed as success means a better life for each an every person in this country and may make lives better for others as well, but somehow sense has left us.  Tens of thousands of people are hoping the new leader of their very own country fails and they are willing to work against him!  How can this make sense?   They want to wreck the government and by extension their own safety and hopes and dreams because they don’t like him?  You can see, it doesn’t seem as if we are off to a very good start.

Now the last thing I wanted to do was start off with politics, but there you go, I did.  Let’s get passed that and look at some other aspects of life.  Our family has welcomed two precious babies into our midst, babies are always a reason to strive for better, to hope in the future, to see promise and I do.  I see my fifteen year old grandson blossoming in ROTC and finding his place in a high school, finding his worth and believe it or not, as a ninth grader, finding his future.. .   “in the Navy, in the Navy”  I am thrilled for him!  He has a direction and a determination I have never seen in him.  Way to go!

But with beginnings always come endings and so I look lovingly at my husband as he begins to end his life.  The pain, the emptiness, the loss that I feel is overwhelming.  Then as I write this I see the new lives, the determination of a grandson, and so much more that I have not mentioned, the sense of loss is softened with the promise of these new innocent ones who will, we all hope, carry on the good fight each one of us fights each and every day.

So, in the end, despite the political nay-sayers, the joy killers, I welcome 2017 with all the hope, joy, and excitement I can muster.  This, too, is a fresh new baby, filled with a can do spirit.  We will go far in 2017 and yes, it will be a great and positive year!