Other cultures and other calendars put the New Year's celebration in other places, but for us, a January beginning seems just right. Life is at its slowest this time of the year.
Contemplation seems to fit in with the spareness of the winter landscape.
It's a quiet time, well-fitted for planning a new beginning, just as the barren branches and open fields are silently planning their own rebirths. If we follow the lead set by nature, we, too, will sit silently in winter's half-light and consider the lives we live. The choices we make each month, each day, each hour, even minute by minute, are the bricks that build those lives. Changing the entire structure is a massive undertaking, so daunting that even the highest enthusiasm cannot carry the builder through to a perfect ending. Then let us give more respect to others.