As I think ahead to 2024, I can’t help but feel so lucky to live here, in these mountains. 

I love the energy surrounding a new year. Why are beginnings so enchanting? Perhaps it’s the hope and anticipation of the unknown or maybe an open opportunity to shed old habits, behaviors and beliefs that are no longer serving us.

In a recent online search, I came across “Good Riddance, But Now What?” by that master of light verse, Ogden Nash: 

If 2024 were a table laid out before you, how would you imagine it: a beautiful, feast-laden smorgasbord of rich and tasty dishes with succulent sides, or an after-dinner wreck piled high with crusted up dirty dishes, overturned wine glasses and already eaten carcasses of dead birds and picked-over porcine bones? 

So, was Christmas everything you imagined it to be? Did you enjoy the gatherings and smatterings of family events? Perhaps you dreaded certain interactions only to find, you were right and next year you will definitely do things differently! Did the people and holiday traditions live up to your expectations? I am going to go out on a psychic limb here and say that they did. Do you want to know how I know?

The standing tradition of starting the New Year off on the trail will continue at N.C. State Parks Monday, Jan. 1, with more than 50 staff-led hikes showcasing the wonders of the Great Trails State. 

The new year always comes with its slew of resolutions, intentions, goals and other optimistic planning for the coming cycle around the sun. With the clamor comes the loud chatter by those who despise the idea of the whole concept, alternatively espousing the idea that every day is an opportunity to begin anew, or that there is no need to give in to the capitalist aesthetic that is constantly bettering oneself. 

Every year on the last night of December, in the dead of winter, the cries go out of “Happy New Year!” We toast our old acquaintance, kiss our sweethearts, celebrate the highs and drown the lows of the previous twelve months in a night of revelry.

Whatever our political beliefs or affiliations, few of us, I suspect, will look back on 2022 with pangs of nostalgia, at least in regard to events in our country at large.

By Sabrina Matheny • Rumble Contributor |