No resolutions here. I’m keeping them tucked away in my head for they are small, easily felled creatures. And really, they can be set loose any day.

Of course, calendars are rather arbitrary things, aren’t they? We take our calendar for granted, but other places measure time differently. Apparently there are seven different calendars in use around the world. (See Calendopaedia.) I hadn’t given any thought to this until years ago when I asked a student her age, and she gave me two answers. One answer was the age on her visa for the United States and the other was the age she has back home.

What is it like thinking of yourself with two different birthdays?

So, here in my country it is New Year’s Eve. You don’t need a special date to think back on how things have been going or where you’d like them to go. Yet we like time markers, don’t we? Even if we don’t like what they mark.

We make resolutions for the New Year, eat cake to mark the day we were born, decide to start projects on certain days or hours, exchange congratulations for anniversaries or perhaps condolences. Doesn’t the Bible say something about seven days? And the 40 days of Lent and what other reflows holidays count days?

Don’t many of us love time travel stories? If such things are meaningless why did China ban such stories? (Though not exactly, but still, don’t mess about with time.) Aren’t people trying to build time machines?

Don’t we think we can waste time and save time and lose track of time and spend time. We’re on time and out of time. We try to buy time and not go before our time–though when is that exactly? (Lots of timely expressions here.)

Funny how something can be timeless but not timeful.

And here’s one of my favorite songs: Anytime.

I confess this is the first time I’m not filled with excitement about our New Year. What will 2018 bring us? This time next year, what will the world look like?

Here some thoughts to take with you in case you to find existential dread pooling up in your heart. Or soul. Or wherever else you find it.

What are you saying goodbye to today? What are you welcoming tomorrow?

Light and comfort and courage in the New Year. Wishing us all well in this next journey around the sun.