New Years' Toast

Last year everyone made a big deal about the whole 'new decade' thing, myself included. Everyone had their own psuedo-intellectual theories about what was in store for the 2010's - "last decade was about yin, bro; this decade is about yang," etc, etc. Regardless of the theories, we all agreed that we had a big feeling about what was ahead.

The only thing we forgot was that the new decade didn't actually start last year.

If you're counting on a 1 through 10 basis (which I believe we all are), 2010 was actually the last year of the first decade, and 2011 is the first year of the new one. I feel the need to point this out because A) Personally, I've had a pretty challenging year and I could use the fresh start, and B) I really do have an incredible feeling about what the next decade holds, and I want to make sure we acknowledge that this is a beginning, because sometimes that acknowledgement alone can be really empowering.

I've often wished I could stop time, just for a few breaths. The celebration of a new year is the one thing for me that comes close to that. We need a new years' celebration for the same reason a book has that blank space between the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. That blank white space is the mirror of the heart and mind. In it lies the totality of where we've come from and the anticipation of where we're headed. It is our space for hope, fear, reflection, resolution. And it's brief, but just long enough if we use it.

I've said before that there is no reset button to life, nor would we want there to be. Everything is a continuation. But there is a reason we honor time - sixty seconds, twelve months, ten years; In a life that moves so quickly and with such constancy, there's something about a new decade that goes beyond a label. Ten years is enough time to live out an entire season of one's life. Enough for a person, a family, or a society to grow and change, irreversibly and meaningfully. There's something both terrifying and beautiful about that.

May the start of this new decade provides us all with a chance to stare into that ever-changing mirror, embrace what we see, and march forward - with heads up and hearts open - toward whatever comes next.

Happy New Year.


-Jakob Martin, December 31, 2010
Los Angeles, CA
Planet Earth