Farewell, 2009

Hard to believe we've completed an entire decade since I welcomed the year 2000 in my friend April's living room, wearing my very first (and not the last) pair of 200X themed glasses. 
We're about to enter the teens, yet I don't feel any different than I did at the beginning of the decade, when I was exiting my own teens. 
When we entered 2009, we were so glad to be rid of 2008.  2008 cut us deeply, and then poured lemon juice in the wounds.  We had no idea how we expected to heal or where 2009 would lead, but it just had to be better than 2008, it just had to.
And it was.
Don't get me wrong, this year definitely had its share of downs, plenty of tears and loss and heartache.  But 2009 also saw us pick ourselves off, dust off, and keep on swimming.
I like the idea of a new year.  A new chance, a blank slate, a starting over point.  No matter that the new year falls smack dab in the middle of winter, at no particular changing point in the actual year, just an arbitrary number change, but nonetheless, the idea appeals to me. 
Every year, I make resolutions.  Every year, I break resolutions.  I try to think of the me I'd like to be, and make conscious efforts and choices to achieve that me.  It rarely works.  But every once in a while, I make a change that sticks around, and that small success of many failures keeps me making new year resolutions.
Plus, it is tradition, and lord knows I'm a sucker for tradition.
So, I'll continue to make new years' resolutions, and do my darndest to stick to them.
We'll eat our 12 grapes, pop our bottle of champagne, and welcome in not only the new year, but the new decade.  We'll remember the blessings of 2009, and say goodbye to the parts we'd like to forget. 
Here's hoping for a glorious start of the new decade, and a happy 2010 for all.