My belated post welcoming 2009.

Welcome 2009! You've been here for more than two days already, but I think it's still appropriate to extend a welcoming hand in your direction. Make yourself comfortable; you're gonna be here awhile.

2008 was a pretty good year. As for life-changing events, there wasn't much. Other than graduating college and my sister getting married, nothing too major went down in my life. I had a good summer, got a good job with an excellent company, successfully expanded my social sphere somewhat, enjoyed the ups and downs of another BYU football season, and continued doing the things I always do. I read good books, watched good movies, and listened to good music. I saw some awesome concerts (Lollapalooza) and did some very fun and spontaneous things (late-night slurpee-fueled Hobble Creek Canyon dance parties). 2008 likely won't occupy many pages when I write my autobiography, but it will be a year that I can look back at with contentment and satisfaction.

But 2009 is here now, and I, like most everyone else, am intrigued by the possibilities of this new year. I would like to believe that I can achieve everything I've failed to achieve in years past, but that isn't too realistic, is it? Sure, I'd love to become a published author making money off my words. Maybe I'll finally finish the novel I've neglected for so long. Maybe I'll get over my cursed timidity and do what it takes to overcome my menacehood.

As much as I would love to accomplish all that and make my dreams my reality, I'm not naive enough to believe it won't require a herculean effort on my part. 2009 could be my best year, but it will require my best effort along with some luck. I hope to be diligent and disciplined enough to focus on what's most important, to prioritize my time and efforts to facilitate maximum personal growth and development.

I read an essay in 2008 (and reread it on New Year's Day) called "New Year's Eve." It was written in 1820 by the famous English essayist Charles Lamb. There are a couple passages that I love and re-read frequently. I felt it would be appropriate to share them because they reflect many of my own feelings and sentiments regarding this time of year and, even more so, life and mortality .

I am not content to pass away "like the weaver's shuttle." Those metaphors solace me not, nor sweeten the unpalatable draught of mortality. I care not to be carried with the tide, that smoothly bears human life to eternity; and reluct at the inevitable course of destiny. I am in love with this green earth; the face of town and country; the unspeakable rural solitudes, and the sweet security of streets. I would set up my tabernacle here. I am content to stand still at the age to which I am arrived; I, and my friends: to be no younger, no richer, no handsomer. I do not want to be weaned by age; or drop, like mellow fruit, as they say, into the grave.

Sun, and sky, and breeze, and solitary walks, and summer holidays, and the greenness of fields, and the delicious juices of meats and fishes, and society, and the cheerful glass, and candle-light, and the fire-side conversations, and innocent vanities, and jests, and irony itself - do these things go out with life?

Every dead man must take upon himself to be lecturing me with his odious truism, that "such as he now is, I must shortly be." Not so shortly, friend, perhaps, as thou imaginest. In the meantime I am alive. I move about. I am worth twenty of thee. Know thy betters! Thy New Years' Days are past. I survive, a jolly candidate for 1821.

More than anything, I suppose, I ought to be grateful to be alive, in good health, with potential and optimism for what I can accomplish in the next year. I've got another day, week, month, year to become a better human being, to treat others with more kindness, to go out of my way to serve and love those around me, to strengthen and lift the suffering and weary as they strengthen and lift me in my trials and difficulties. Isn't that what really matters? More than what we do in our lives, it's how we do it. At least that's what I have come to believe, and that's what I resolve to do in 2009: become a better person. If 2010 rolls around and I can look back at 2009 and know that I became a better person, it will have been a very good year. Everything else I might accomplish will be nice and all, but it will be secondary to the type of person I make of myself in the next 363 days.

Friends and family, I wish you a very happy New Year and the energy and ability to accomplish all that you need to in 2009.