In my younger days,  early January always  reminded me of early September, mostly because both months signified new beginnings.  January, of course, signified the hopes associated with the  turn of the calendar and September was when the summer break ended and we would return to school and enter a new grade. 

I can still smell the freshness of the first days of any new school year, new notebooks and sharpened pencils in a brand new pencil box.  This feeling of  a clean slate, especially the blank  pages of my new composition book, always made me think that no matter how badly the past year ended, I could still be afforded a fresh start. Maybe this would be the year that all of my grades would fall into place or at least the cafeteria food would miraculously become edible.

This January I think we all should be granted the hope of a better year ahead, a fresh start for strength, respite and support.  While I know that sitting in an emergency waiting room on December 31st feels the same as sitting in that same room 24 hours later,  I just feel that  If we are ever  to believe in a new dawn, this is as good a time as ever to start.  How about creating a respite plan for yourself and   keeping  it for as long as possible?  Or what about creating a Reverse Gift List for your family and go ahead and make the calls knowing  that this time they will come through?  Nobody deserves it more than you do.

Gary Barg
Editor-in-Chief
gary@caregiver.com