The holiday season has almost drawn to a close for most of us, with New Year's Day being the last kick at the can with dinner with family and friends for a while.
Hopefully, most of us have done what they can to help folks, who were alone, sick or not well off, to have a brighter and happier Christmas.
Hopefully, this coming year we remember our friends and neighbours who struggle all year round and we can find ways in our hearts to help make their days brighter by offering a helping hand up.
Now, we are entering another new year.
Some of us have made resolutions with all of the best of intentions – whether it's to stop smoking, exercise more, spend more time with the family or just become a better all-around person.
Congratulations to those who do make the change – the strong ones who can quit cold turkey.
More and more of us are forgoing the longtime tradition of making New Year's Eve resolutions because they're too hard to achieve and there seems to be so many obstacles in our way.
Predictions are falling by the wayside because the world is changing at a rapid rate – almost instantaneously.
There was a time when we could keep up with the world news by reading newspapers, listening to the radio and watching TV, but now, with the worldwide web and social media, we can watch the world change on a daily basis.
However, we have to be careful about relying on that as our sole source of news and information.
While we feel overwhelmed by this big old world spinning faster and faster on its axis and we're worried about humanity going to hell in a hand basket, there are things we can do to make our little corner of the world a little bit better.
First of all, we cannot throw up our hands and give up; we cannot be quitters.
This is our community, and we have many important issues to consider.
The first thing we have to do is get involved.
We have to make the time to go to the meetings to voice our concerns and propose solutions, especially when it comes to how politicians are spending our tax dollars at all levels of government.
We have to make the time to talk to our families and neighbours to see how we can help each other make this community stronger.
We can do it if we make the time to work together for the benefit of all.
It's time for many of us to get back to greasing the wheel that makes our world go around.
Let's all resolve to get involved and, together, we can help our community become stronger because of our effort.