New year is a blank canvas

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The beginning of a new year should be viewed as an opportunity for a fresh beginning.

Each new year brings an opportunity to complete projects that may have been started, but never completed. We also have the challenge to start new tasks — new projects that we have only imagined — but never had the time, the opportunity or the nerve to tackle.

Every new year, we should look forward to new opportunities, new accomplishments, new resolutions and, also, we should prepare for some new trials, some heartbreaks and some different tribulations.

Last year, I prepared an art canvas for a new painting. I don’t paint often, but when I do, I find it to be extremely relaxing and enjoyable. My new canvas is still sitting out in the garage on my workbench. I already know what I want the finished painting to look like. I even know exactly where I’m going to hang the completed painting.

So far, I’ve done everything … except, actually putting paint on the canvas. That will end soon. When the weather warms up and I can spend some time in the garage painting, I’m going to finish that project. That’s a New Year’s commitment.

Everyone has projects like my as-of-yet-unstarted painting in the garage or like the dying red maple tree in our back yard. The tree used to be a beautiful, big red maple tree. It gave us great summer shade and beautiful fall foliage colors.

Now, it’s mostly dead. I’ve had an arborist work on it. His prognosis was grim. The tree is not going to survive. I could have it cut down, chopped up and the stump removed, but that didn’t sound very creative and it would make the backyard seem terribly empty.

I always thought the tree needed a treehouse, but I’m not wild about the idea of putting a treehouse in a dead tree. However, since the main tree trunk branches out about five feet above the ground and several large branches come out just above the five-foot mark, I’m convinced that a good tree trimmer could make a level cut of all the branches and limbs at about the seven-foot mark and a great, flat platform could be built and mounted on that extra-large stump of a tree. Side-rails, a slide, swings and ladders could be mounted that would make an excellent playset for grandkids. Now, that’s a great, new project. It’s planned for the new year.

Most people, not everyone, but most people, make New Year’s Resolutions. I rarely make New Year’s Resolutions anymore, because I have found over the years that I rarely keep them. So, I figure … why bother. I quit smoking years ago. I’m not interested in improving my golf game. I don’t think I drink too much.

I would like to lose about thirty pounds, but I’ll need to get my knee fixed before I can exercise enough to make that happen. That will be another project for the new year; get my knee surgically repaired or replaced. Yuck.

Whether you make New Year’s Resolutions or plan new projects for 2017, we all recognize that the beginning of a new year offers each of us a chance to either start-over, do-over or, at least, try again.

Thinking about the future, it is nearly impossible to imagine what we will be talking about this time next year. The end of each year is a time for looking back. Each year brings significant accomplishment and numerous losses. It would impossible to guess what 2017 will bring.

Our future, much like the unstarted painting out in the garage, is a blank canvas. We have the opportunity, each and every day, to make our future something special. We get to start anew each day.

Norman Vincent Peale wrote about a successful salesman who started each day by deciding to have a good day. He stated, “Good days are ahead for the very good reason that we will make them good days. Every morning,” he would say, “we have the choice whether it shall be a good day or bad day. I can tell you that, as a result, my days, while not always easy, are still good.”

Have a great year. Make it a great year.

Your future is a blank canvas. Make it beautiful.

Randy Riley is President of Council of Wilmington.

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Randy Riley

Contributing Columnist

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