Make 2011 a year to learn, plan

Some years deserve to be put behind us. Maybe even most years.

I don't know all the anthropological, sociological or practical reasons for dividing days into months and months into years, but beginning and ending each year with a holiday is a good idea.

While Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 really are not a whole lot different from any of the other days of the year, we will make them special.

We will throw a party or go to one, plan an intimate dinner or settle in by ourselves for a breather. Some of us may feel a bit out-of-sorts — sad, lonely, uneasy. For others, there is a sense of celebration in our activities.

I've never really been sure what's so special about New Year's. What are we celebrating? Are we just plain surprised that the world has managed to survive yet one more year living on the brink of disaster? Or are we rejoicing that we have made it through yet another 365 days of the stress of job, family, housework, etc.?

There is certainly a welcome sense of relief when we put behind us a year marred by death, divorce, unemployment or major illness.

Likewise, we may feel a special gratitude for a year of accomplishment and growth.

Whatever our feelings — surprise, rejoicing, relief, gratitude — we do experience a sense of ending.

A wise person once observed that “all good things come to an end.” Fortunately most bad things do, too. One of the real values of New Year's, then, is its place in our lives as an ending for both the good and the bad.

We may be ending the year we had surgery, lost our job or got divorced — or the year we finished school, changed careers or started a family.

What is important is that we see a specific period in our life coming to a close, because people need such endings. We want to feel finished, able to put something behind us. We try to make peace with the past. Endings provide the foundation on which to build beginnings, and New Year's also is a time to celebrate new possibilities.

We begin again our struggle to become all that God created us to be. We renew our commitment to change, to grow, to move beyond past failures and successes.

Both the endings and beginnings in our New Year's observance are important in our lives; they are like a road map. They signify the miles we've traveled, the difficult roads we've encountered and the pleasant or rewarding journeys we've completed.

They also set out for us the miles yet to go, the potential hazards ahead, side trips we hope to make and the sights we plan to see.

There are also dangers in our New Year's celebrations. We often fail to learn from our past successes and failures, and then repeat them. Likewise, we may fail to intentionally plan for the year ahead; we also can plan too much or too little.

You know, if we didn't have our New Year's celebration of endings and beginnings, we'd probably have to invent one. Let's use our first days of 2011 to consider what we can learn from another year's experience, and to plan how we can continue to grow and develop as people.

Happy New Year.