January 2nd, the true start of the year. Now that the traditional January 1st hangovers have subsided, it is time to focus on those goals set forth for the coming year. Gyms will be full, cigarettes will remain on the shelves, as the return to work and post-holiday life begins.

Luckily, there is a weekend buffer to ease us back into our usual workweeks. Some will gleefully leave the yuletide season and it’s festive responsibilities, while others reluctantly part from that cherished time of year. It is always a sad duty to pack those garlands and wreaths back into their boxes. Those boxes retire to the dark corners of basements and attics, laying dormant, awaiting the passing of 11 months to bring the season to life once more. It is an inevitability that time marches on, and we have no choice but to go along with it. Many aspects of life can be resisted, like our continued resistance to charging outrageous surge prices on New Year’s Eve. But, despite all attempts to keep the holidays near, time will continue to move forward.

Returning to “normal” seems dull compared to the magic brought by the month of December. Now we face what feels like an endless winter covered in grey skies and freezing temperatures. How wistful one can be for December, when winter’s chill was absent and good cheer was found on every street corner.

Yet the beauty of the season is the length of it. Comparatively short to the rest of the year, it offers and escape from the impending winter months. Though, like any season, if it was our perpetual state, surely we would long for something different.

The seasons change, the years pass by, and everyone is now a year older, and hopefully wiser. Some New Year’s resolutions will peter out in the coming weeks, but for some with the determined resolve of a true desire to change, their resolution will become a way of life.

Perhaps your resolution is to take better care of yourself, maybe offer yourself a treat now and again… May we suggest the treat of a Carmel car to your desired destination? Have you resolved to travel more? Whether it is domistically to discover your own backyard, or to a far distant land, Carmel would be thrilled to get you going on your various adventures.

No matter the resolution, no matter if you keep it, time will sweep us along. 2016 will be a series of ups and downs and never exactly as we can plan it. But that is what makes life exciting, not knowing what the day, week, month, or year will bring. Cheers to taking 2016 as it comes!