Welcome 2007

Look at the title of this post again. Is it my greeting to the new year, or a suggestion that you approach it with the same offer of hospitality you would make to a guest in your home?

Language is never as clear as it seems: it offers us choices and we make its meaning together. The new year offers us the same blend of what is given to us and what we contribute to make it meaningful. Some of the conditions of the year are already set: you know something of what waits for you when you go back to work, something of your family circumstances. Some of it may be set in fate: surprises (good and bad) that can neither be predicted nor controlled. The rest of the year waits for you to make your contribution, to shift meaning and context, to add humour or emphasis or effort.

2007 is here, whether you welcome it or not. Each day, another page turns on calendars all over the world - if they can be turned back, we do not yet know how to do it. You have many of the materials out of which this year will be constructed - the words, so to speak. What they mean to you, depends on you. You have so many choices.

When you welcome them, how do those choices change?

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