Welcome. Welcome to the next chapter in our lives. This year could be wondrous and a positive experience or we could be plunged into the depths of despair. I personally prefer the first!

In the year of our Lord, 2017.

Today is where it all begins. Today we have a chance, no, a choice to be the best that we can be and by example show the world just what is important. The naysayers will tell you that as individuals we have no power, no control over what happens in the world. That is true and it is false. As an individual we may not have the power to control much but we do have the power to control how we react to the world. And in doing so we have the ability to start the ball rolling. Show others that we can act with integrity and perhaps they will find it within their hearts to act the same way.

Someone once said to me that I didn’t understand the Big Picture. I laughed. And then I said that they didn’t understand the Big Picture. You see that Big Picture is a mosaic made up of teeny, tiny pictures. Each person contributes to the Big Picture and by doing so becomes a part of it.

I may not have control over the world politics or the weather or even peoples attitudes on the other side of the world. What I can control is my attitude, my way of dealing with the world at my fingertips. If I can positively affect one person who then goes on to positively affect another person who then goes on to . . . . You see my point? I can affect the world. And so can you.

Let us make the decision together that we will effect change not just be affected by it. We must start with ourselves and then those within our influence. Each step forward can make a change if our heart is in the right place. Any change we make may be so infinitesimally small that we may not notice it at first. But by continuing to make small changes it will eventually grow. We must feed the positivity and deny the negativity any footing in our psyche. Practice with me now: no, no, No!

How small that word is. And yet it has the power to change the world. Just say “no” to the hatred, to the bigotry, to the cruelty. Just say “no”.

May this be the year we finally get it right.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!