The One Second Holiday

  We’ve passed another New Year’s.  As I reflect, as I’m wont to do each New Year’s, it occurs to me.  New Year’s in association with its close relative New Year’s Eve, is essentially a one-second holiday.  While most other holidays are a full day, such as Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day, MLK Day, etc, and there is even a holiday which spans months (Christmas starts in August, right?), New Year’s comes down to that moment from 23:59 to 00:00.

  Yet, within that one second, we pack a lot into the holiday.  Two years’ worth in fact.  We take all of our past from the previous year and put it behind us.  Usually, that means pushing away our disappointments, failures, losses, and that which has saddened us.  And then, in the same breathless expectation, we look forward to the New Year.  Our thoughts are always filled with hope and wonder at what is to come.  This year, after all, will be better.  We set our goals (“resolutions”) and look ahead at the joy that is inevitable.  I cannot think of a time where someone looked forward with disappointment.

  If you’re truly blessed, you even have someone with whom to share that second.  After all, one of the traditions of the New Year is to kiss your special someone.

  Which led me to think further – why do we only go through this exercise in that moment that rolls the odometer over from 23:59:59 31 December to 00:00 01 January?  Imagine how our outlooks might be improved if, from time to time, we took a moment to share with our special someone and put our past and disappointments behind us and looked forward to the hope and expectations of a new day dawning.

  For a one second holiday, we limit it to merely once a year.  Surely, we have a second to spare elsewhere in our yearly journeys.  Let’s not limit ourselves to only that one second.  There’s not a second to lose!

So, to all… Happy New Year!