Last January first, the world moved into a new year, the year of A.D. 2022. The number proceeds with A.D. or Anno Domini, which is Latin for “in the year of the Lord”. Standardized under the Julian and Gregorian calendars, days and years have been calculated based on the birth of Christ (give or take a year or two)

New Year’s Eve and Day are always celebrated with anticipation and hope; Anticipation of the new as we leave the old year behind; Hope that a new year will bring more prosperity to our future.

Over my lifetime, New Year’s has been filed with family and friends. One of my fondest childhood memories is spending New Year’s Eve at my Grandma Fleshner’s where we watched the movie ‘Holiday Inn’ while she played her organ right along with all the show tunes. Yep, New Year’s is a fun time.

We all have those moments in our lifetime that were so impactful that we remember what we were doing and now base our sense of time on them; The birth of our children, the death of a parent, the Kennedy assassination, 9/11, and the list goes on. It’s after those events we find ourselves saying “that was two years after mom died” or “it was only three months after that we. . . .”

August 1st has become one of those unforgettable points in time and actually has become New Years’ day for me. If you remember, it was August 1, 2020, that we discovered Suzanne had cancer. It was hearing the word, cancer that marked that specific point in time as a new beginning in our lives. Not a beginning like starting over, but more like a stopwatch that seems to keep track of the seconds, minutes, hours, days, and now even years we get to spend together.

Every day since then, I feel like Morley Safer is in the room with the constant tick, tick, tick of the 60 Minutes stopwatch running in the background. I’m trying to be “normal” and do “normal” things but I always feel like I’m on the clock. Doing what I can, making sure that Suzanne has what she needs for her nutrition, providing a stable point in her life for comfort, and ensuring that appointments are scheduled and finances are taken care of.

So today is New Year’s Day, farther down the road now, two years as a matter of fact. Although we have both become somewhat complacent about that stopwatch, and try not to let it run our lives, we are always aware of how lucky we are that it’s still ticking.

Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:16