While birthdays mark an individual's age , new years' seems to mark the age of the entire world- at least that part which follows the Gregorian calendar. We often hear statements such as "happy birthday" as well as "happy new year" - conveying the message that " I hope you are personally happy on your birthday" as well as " I hope you are happy on the eve of the new year" - These statements are said in the hope that our birthdays and our new years' will somehow be different for us then the rest of the other 365 days of the year - As individuals, we often try and create festive occasions to make these dates stand-out and inject happiness - sometimes it works , sometimes it does not. In the case of new years', we even go so far as doing a count-down as the clock crosses midnight - we strive to appreciate each second of the last minute of the year- imagine if we did that every night ! The truth is that on both birthdays and new years' , something significant to us (our body or our world ) is getting older - As individuals we strive to learn from the past year and get wiser -not in the sense of not making any more mistakes at all, but of at least not making the same type of mistakes of the past- perhaps that is the best we can strive for. On new years' as well as birthdays it is often good to try and take a step back from the every day and engage in a degree of meditation - to try and think about who we are and what are we doing. In a sense we have a clean slate and we can somehow have the hope of making the new year better then the last. At times, through such exercises, we may reach conclusions that change is needed. This change may involve both trying new things or simply trying to stop doing things that not longer make us happy. As well it is good to be aware of the concept of the passage of time and also not to forget that time, although seeming to be infinite , is in fact very limited- both for us as well those we love. New year , the act of marking the start of a new period for our world helps do this - however we should try and have awareness and appreciation of time all year long - Do not make the mistake of taking time for granted. One day we will all reach the birthday or the new year that will be out last , we will have run out of time - most likely we will not know it when it happens - it will just happen Until then, we continue living our own individual journeys and doing the best we can - if you need to talk call us we are here to help.