A decade ago, colored lights danced around the living room on New Year's Eve and happy music was played. Upstairs, the children were asleep. But I wasn't feeling happy. In mid-December, my husband and I had been informed that he had cancer and that he was going to die. He had less than a year left, the doctors said.

    In the years since that painful season, I have come to look back upon New Year's Eve as an ending and a beginning. New Year's Eve brings a halt to the endless commitments that fill our daily lives and a chance to reflect.

    New Year's Eve is full of possibility and anticipation. What will be the surprising experiences and delightful successes in the coming year? But also, what disappointments are waiting for us in the next twelve months?

    In many ways, New Year's Eve and the days that surround it are a line between past and future. That line is made up of a series of moments of transition(过渡) that take us out of the old and into the new. Transition can be challenging for many of us. It's about letting go of the familiar and diving headlong (迅猛地) into the unfamiliar.

    Just as, back then, I had to face letting go of the life I had led with my beloved husband and stepping into a new world as a widowed mom. I find that each year I have to step out of the version of me that suited the year that is ending and ease into the version of me who will rise to the goals I am holding for myself for the year ahead.

    Last year at this time, I sat in a chair in southern France and drank in the stillness(沉静) and beauty of the countryside around me. The three children and I had brought into this world talked and laughed around the table beside me as we enjoyed a lunch of bread and cheese.

    I was filled with a sense of joy and I had a glowing(热情洋溢的) heart that was full of hope. It was another ending and another beginning. May we all transition into the best of what lies ahead. May we all find happiness this holiday season.