2015 – A Year to Remember!

Last night, my wife Jean and I celebrated a nice, simple New Year’s Eve with Jean’s sister, Denise. Jean made a wonderful salmon and beet salad that was a thoughtful diversion from the heavy, butter laden dishes consumed on New Year’s Eve’s of the past.

Going around the table, we each talked about some things that we wanted to accomplish in 2015 and I ended my list with, “and I’m glad that 2014 is in the rear-view mirror.” It was here that Jean looked at me and said, “For 2015 I want to have it end where we don’t say that we’re glad that it’s over.”

I am amazed and humbled by how many times in the last 31 years of knowing my wife, she has said things that pierce my soul and provide me with an instant of clarity. This was one of those times and I vowed to make 2015 a year to remember. Not in a declaratory, boastful manner, but in a silent, inner-driven agreement with myself for Jean and the kids.

The facts support that we’ve had a few rough years and I am happy that many of the events are in the past. What’s also true is that hidden within each of the trials and tribulations that we’ve endured lie some of our most joyous and happy moments.

We’ve had two kids graduate from college, two more who are well on their way to doing the same, Jean has a job that she thoroughly enjoys and so do I, our math game app business continues to chug along, we’ve taken some fun trips together, I’ve made it through what was probably a bit of mid-life crisis in my early forties, we have great friends that we enjoy spending time with, Jean and I are on the verge of celebrating 25 years of marriage and many, many other blessings for which I am truly grateful.

It is with immense gratitude that I now write that my goals for 2015 are set and woven into the tapestry of my plan is that they lead to a year that Jean and I will always remember. Perhaps even an inflection point of sorts that puts our lives back on the path that we’ve imagined.

It is true that the last six New Year’s Eve’s have found me saying or thinking, “I’m glad that year is over.” Luckily, I’ve never meant it in a negative, dark-thinking way. My thoughts are