What a year for a new year

Credit: bdbcommunication.com

So it's goodbye to 2012 and hello to 2013.  2012 was an interesting year, full of many ups and downs:  Two surgeries for me to deal with the pesky cancer, The Move, and everything in between.  It wasn't a bad year at all, I don't think.  It was a busy year, and I hope that 2013 brings a lot less drama.

I'm not big into making resolutions for the new year because I know I'll never stick with them.  But this year may be different.  Since December 14, I haven't been able to get the families of Newtown, Connecticut, out of my head.  I don't know how they are dealing with the terrible loss of so many members of their community, so many children.  How have the parents and loved ones of those lost been able to get through the holiday season?  How do they get through their daily lives or even an hour?  Trevor says I tend to obsess over things that scare me, but as a mother of a 4- and 5-year old, I don't know how to stop thinking about it.

In 2013, my resolution is to try to be more mindful of how I interact with my family.  I want to really listen when they speak and not be distracted by the loooong to-do list that always rattles around in my brain.  I think with so much going on in everyone's lives and all the technology that surrounds us at every waking moment, we're forgetting how to slow down and truly live in the moment with the people we love.  Someday, my kids aren't going to remember how many things I accomplished in any given day or how clean their rooms were.  They're going to remember curling up on the couch to read a book or playing beauty salon at the kitchen table.  They'll remember when I walked away from the huge pile of laundry to be a villainess who tries to conquer Spiderman and Firestar.  I'm not saying that the kids will never be sent to their rooms or reprimanded in any way or spoiled rotten.  But what I want is to raise them to be kind, generous, loving, and forgiving people because that is the best way, the only way, I know how to honor those whose lives were cut short.  And maybe, just maybe, they will usher in a new generation of adults whose lived are never touched by senseless tragedies and violence.  Maybe.

"What a Year for a New Year" by Dan Wilson

• Nancy Lanza, Rachel D'Avino,

• Dawn Hochsprung, Anne Marie Murphy, Lauren Rousseau, Mary Sherlach, Victoria Leigh Soto

• Charlotte Bacon, 6
• Daniel Barden, 7
• Olivia Engel, 6
• Josephine Gay, 7
• Dylan Hockley, 6
• Madeleine Hsu, 6
• Catherine Hubbard, 6
• Chase Kowalski, 7
• Jesse Lewis, 6
• Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
• James Mattioli, 6
• Grace McDonnell, 7
• Emilie Parker, 6
• Jack Pinto, 6
• Noah Pozner, 6
• Caroline Previdi, 6
• Jessica Rekos, 6
• Avielle Richman, 6
• Benjamin Wheeler, 6
• Allison Wyatt, 6