It’s hard to believe but it’s time to say, “out with the old and in with the new and Happy New Year!”
For some last year was a tough one. And just because it’s a new year that does not mean that suddenly life’s difficulties or our emotional or physical pain disappear. Yet, even when life seems most difficult, there is something magical and life-affirming when watch the ball drop and flip the calendar to a new year.
The simple turning of the calendar page can help us develop a somehow-I-will-manage-to-get-through-these-tough-times attitude. It’s an annual ritual that reminds us that we’ve survived difficulties before, and we will again. It’s a small, powerful action that helps us develop our resilience muscles and mindset. It unlocks our optimism. It’s when we resolve – because we have the gift of another year – that we’re going to become a better version of ourselves. We make plans to grow, change, and improve. We resolve to make our dreams a reality.
We’ve got a whole, blank new year in front of us. January is the month we tell ourselves and the world we’re ready for new beginnings. Hope is in the air!
Abraham Lincoln said that “the best way to predict your future is to create it.”
The Andover Public Library has many of the tools available to help you create the future you want.
We have GED classes. Book and game clubs. Arts and crafts programs. One-on-one help with computer technology. Thanks to the American Heart Association, a blood pressure cuff that you can use to keep track of one of your individual health goals.
We have our incredible CLEVNET catalog. Here you can find thousands of resources that can help you reach your goals, grow, and learn. Like books on financial planning or personal health and wellness, recovery, parenting, gardening, listening, public speaking, or traveling. You can also find books filled with sacred readings, philosophy, poetry, fiction, or non-fiction. All these tools and resources are waiting for you to pick them up to empower you to become your personal best. If not now, when?
The other day I got an e-mail from the Greater Good Science Center. Its subject line was simple: Bring More Happiness & Compassion to the World in 2025. The words struck me as a potential new year’s resolution. I cannot think of any individual, family, workplace, or community that can’t use more happiness and compassion. And in each of our small circle of influence we can make it happen – one small act of kindness, forgiveness, or service at a time. And if that is all that we do? I think that’s a pretty big deal.
Living to see another year is a gift. Here’s the one piece of advice I am going to try to follow: carpe annum! Seize the year. Make the best of it – with all its inevitable ups and downs. Enjoy the moments. Read more. Laugh more. Wonder more. Hope more. Listen more. Say “thank you” more. Be ready for unexpected surprises.
As we turn the calendar to 2025, thank you for your on-going support of the Andover Public Library. We look forward to working with you in the year ahead.
Sincerely,
Nancy Logan, Director