“All my life’s a circle/ Sunrise and sundown/ Moon rolls through the nighttime/ ‘Til daybreak comes around./ All my life’s a circle/ I can’t tell you why./ Seasons spinning ’round again/ Years keep rolling by.”

– Harry Chapin

As I sat late last night with the TV playing the Times Square festivities in the next room, I thought about another year winding to a close and wondered, ‘how did that happen again?’  I remember the first time I stayed up and watched a live broadcast of the ball dropping.  As it descended, we were treated to a big band rendition of Auld Lang Syne. “Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind; Should old acquaintance be forgot, and days of Auld Lang Syne.”  Auld Lang Syne — “old long since,” or “days gone by.”  I suppose if you think of it, the singing of Robert Burns’ words is a way of paying tribute to the days that are ending before we move on to a new beginning.  What is there that you want to remember about 2010?  What people who are dear to you have left your life in the past year?  Should old acquaintance be forgot? No, we will carry them in our hearts.  And never brought to mind? Though the conscious remembering will soon take a back seat to the living that continues, we will call them to our memories when life sweeps through the parts of its never-ending spirals that take us forward to new things and back to touch on times past.  Should old acquaintance be forgot and days of Auld Lang Syne? It is said that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.  Let’s remember 2010 — the good times and the ones that were not so good — and take its lessons with us as we enter new territory.  “We’ll take a cup of kindness then, for Auld Lang Syne.” We toast the living that has now become our past and lovingly turn toward the future.

As I sat last night and waited for someone — here’s to you, Guy Lombardo — to begin the old familiar tune, I was surprised to hear another favorite begin to play instead.  ”Imagine no possessions.  I wonder if you can.  No need for greed or hunger.  A brotherhood of man.  Imagine all the people sharing all the world.”  And I realized that we are living in remarkable times.  As a new year presents itself, we are looking toward our dreams.  We have raised a “cup of kindness” to Auld Lang Syne and moved into a place where memories linger but dreams prevail.  The more of us who dream; not forgetting the past, but not dwelling on it or clinging to it, the greater the hope for us all.  Welcome 2011, the year that awaits our dreams.  Wherever you find yourself, whatever challenges you might face, whatever goal you strive to attain, be sure to walk in love — to be Love.  We can change the world, really.  ”You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”