Happy New Year 2015 -- Every day we write the book

Our backyard garden was filled with many lovely roses last year,
none more beautiful than this rainbow-colored one.
This is one of my favorite photographs I took in 2014.

We are almost a week into 2015.

Tomorrow is the seventh blank page of a 365-page,

year-long book that each of us will author.

All of us began the New Year last Thursday with a clean slate, 

which is a good thing.

Hopefully, each of us will take the time to write a thoughtful book, 

be it a memoir or a best-selling novel,

day by day, page by page.

As we look back on 2014, we bid it a fond farewell. 

No regrets.

 With 2015 coming into clear view, we welcome its challenges.

Remember, the words of Ecclesiastes, who said:

"The race is not to the swift,

nor the battle to the strong."

Life is to be enjoyed day by day,

 one day at a time.

Take time for reading, listen to good music,

master a hobby,

talk to good friends -- and listen to them, too.

Here's wishing you and your loved ones a Happy New Year.

May each of you enjoy cheers, love and peace on Earth

in the New Year ahead.

Photograph by Michael Dickens © 2014.

Happy New Year: A look back, a glance forward

The sun sets over the San Francisco Bay Area in this
February 2013 photograph I took from Memorial Stadium
on the UC Berkeley campus.

Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page,

year-long book that each of us will author.

All of us start with a clean slate.

So, let's each take the time to write a good one, page by page.

In the meantime, here's a last salute to 2013,

 and a welcome glance towards 2014.

Remember, in the words of Ecclesiastes:

"The race is not to the swift,

nor the battle to the strong."

Life is to be enjoyed day by day, one at a time.

Here's wishing you and your loved ones a Happy New Year.

May each of you enjoy cheers, love and peace on earth

in the New Year ahead.

Happy 2013: Finding peace and embracing it

Les Voyageurs / The Belgian artist Pierre Caille's 1980 imaginative
sculpture greets everyone entering the Botanique metro station
in Brussels. We are all passengers in this journey and the artist
addresses "the dreamers, the passers-by who still have a little
imagination in this realist world."

As we begin the New Year 2013 with a clean slate, it's worth reminding ourselves that fairness, kindness, generosity and tolerance are all values we can embrace. We hold ourselves to these exemplary values, we develop meaningful friendships based on one or more of these values, and we have high expectations for others to embrace these same values.

In the year just finished, I embraced the importance of meaningful international relationships and of multiculturalism, and I realized ~ and, hopefully, so did you ~ that there is much potential for our wonderful world if we just show fairness, act with kindness and generosity, and preach tolerance toward others.

As we bid farewell to 2012, here's a simple thought that's worth embracing, courtesy of the late Mildred Lisette Norman, an American pacifist, vegetarian and peace activist, who in 1953 adopted the name Peace Pilgrim and walked across the United States for 28 years:

“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.”

Indeed, inner peace can be achieved with the help of being fair, being kind, being generous and being tolerant. Be all you can be and show love and peace for your fellow human beings.

Looking ahead to the New Year, I remain hopeful that each of us can embrace the importance of tolerance and be open-minded individuals in developing friendships with others regardless of social, economic or religious barriers. 

Here's wishing you and your loved ones a Happy 2013, and may each of you enjoy cheers, love and peace in the New Year ahead.

Photograph of Pierre Caille's "Les Voyageurs" by Michael Dickens, copyright 2012. All rights reserved.