Happy New Year!

Last night, I was once again lucky enough to find myself in a unique position to enjoy some of the wonderful opportunities this city has to offer. My friend Chisum, graciously invited me to accompany him to a party thrown by one of his clients at the top of the Turnberry's Tower #1. There was excellent food, two open bars, live jazz, and the best view of the fireworks on the Strip that you could hope for. It was a wonderful way to ring in 2008, and I had a blast!

As we were filing in from one of the suite's many balconies after watching the pyrotechnic display, the crowd burst into a spontaneous rendition of "Auld Aang Syn." Watching the mix of old and young smiling and singing along, I started thinking: What is it about the end of one calendar year and the beginning of another that makes all of us feel so hopeful and so nostalgic?

Perhaps it is the promise of a new beginning that fills us with hope. Maybe January 1st is a tangible marker that we can use as a starting point for a better life. We make resolutions, and yes, we often break them...but I think there is value in the resolutions none-the-less. Making resolutions for change shows that we are still growing, still trying to improve our lives, still reaching out for something just beyond our grasp. Who cares if we don't always live up to our newly reiterated hopes? Who cares if we fall short of our resolutions? Perhaps it is the act of trying that is so very important...the act of caring enough about our lives, to grab hold of the new beginning that each new year offers and to strive, once again, to make our lives sublime.

I know that as I move forward into 2008, I am very hopeful that this will be my best year yet! There are so many life lessons that I have absorbed over the last year, I am looking forward to putting those new insights to work in my life. I am so grateful for the great friends that will be sharing this year with me. We have big plans. I truly believe that when I post another entry on this blog in January of 2009, it will be a summary of all the wonderful changes that occurred in my life in 2008. I wish for all of you the same enthusiasm as you move forward into this new year.

Here's to letting go of all the failures and disappointments that we have faced in years past, and moving forward to a brighter tomorrow. After all, failure consists not in falling down over and over again, but only in failing to rise every time we do.

Here's to 2008...Cheers!