And so 2019 Arrives

Sydney Fireworks on NYD

The New Year has arrived! Partying out the old and ringing in the new has happened and I am sitting here in my chair looking out at the first dawn of 2019. A squirrel, oblivious to the change of the year, is scavenging on my deck looking for the peanuts that Chris puts out for the birds.

The first dawn is gray, much like 2018 which is just departed. But it is not raining.

Chris and I in a NYE Selfie
December 31, 2018

I know there are 364 more dawns to experience this year and I know that each one will be different.  

I looked back at my first blog of 2018 and I noted that the temperature outside was 4.5 degrees! Today it is a balmy 55 degrees here at the house.

And so here some thoughts for 2019:

I hope that 2019 is drier than 2018. It should not be too hard since 2018 set a record for the most rainfall EVER in the Baltimore-Washington region. At items I thought I was living in Seattle.

I am hopeful that I will see 2020 dawn from the deck of a cruise ship in the Caribbean! I had a similar wish on New Year's Day, (NYD) 2014 for the beginning of 2015--it sadly, did not happen.

I believe that my treatments for prostate cancer were successful and that I will receive confirming test results during 2019.

I hope that my family will be healthy and prosperous during 2019! 

From my 2017 NYD blog, I am hoping that the divisions in our country can be repaired and we can begin to move forward. It is terrible that the government is in partial shutdown as we begin the year! But, then, as I reviewed my blogs I note that there have been other NYD where I make similar comments.

In closing this first blog of 2019, I provide the thoughts I wrote  for the dawn of 2010:

I hope and pray that this year is better for you and your family than last year.
That you will receive and recognize blessings beyond your imagination.
That you will find love, companionship, and fulfillment in all you do.
That you will be true to yourself, and to God in your life and your profession and in the decisions that you make every day.
Do not sell or lose your integrity.

May the seas of life be calm for you,
But when the seas are rough, may you be on a big ship firmly in the hand of God
And may you sail on into the future
with hope, and excitement ready for the challenges of the hour, day, week and month as they come knowing that in the end--you are never alone, no matter how lonely you feel and that we have all been there in some form before--so do not isolate yourself from friends and make it a task find a person who used to be a friend--and reconcile with them this year.

Happy New Year!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD