The repeated commercials for Christmas shopping have been stored for another year! The hustle and bustle has settled into a quiet lull with children playing with new toys and adults perplexed with new tech gifts. But it was another Christmas season with traditions and family gatherings. It ends a year on the right note.

The spirit of sharing, gathering and remembering the birth of Christ hopefully lingers. The new year always brings a surge of hope for bettering the world and wishing the spirit of sharing would stay within our hearts.

We quickly make resolutions about better health, better family relations and better neighborhoods. The difficult part is staying with the plan and being active in making the positive moves in our lives.

It is definitely one step at a time; one step in front of the other. It is sincerely wanting change. It is avoiding wasting our resolutions on whims that float away with the closing of boxes filled with our seasonal ornaments and extra wrapping.

We can say at the end of 2018, “well done.”

We can start listening to medical advice and improve our health.

We can stay in touch with family and friends with telephones and text messaging. We don’t have to wait for the holiday news letter.

When relations are stretched and tense, we can make the first move.

And lets hope our nation will move one step at a time in wanting to avoid the waste of bickering and finger pointing.

Lets hope the spirit of bipartisanship replaces the boasting and badgering. Lets get some things accomplished, one step at a time with heart for our national welfare.

The new year is a fresh start. Change is never easy but it happens. We make it work that way. We can change our personal world and we encourage leaders to change our national direction. Welcome 2018! May harmony and good spirits lead the way!