How many new beginnings is a person allotted? One for each new year? New month? New day?
A good story has a beginning, middle, and end, not infinite beginnings. I intend mine to be a good story. I shall not endlessly rewrite the first chapter, seeking its perfection. I shall progress and grow, regress and change.
The new year hands us a blank page, inviting us, daring us, to write our future; and we reach out with eager, childlike hands and giddy minds racing with ideas of all the scribbles we will put on it. But it need not be a new story, merely, greatly, a new chapter. The Old You may be permitted to live in the pages pressed against the new, her ink occasionally bleeding through to touch and taint the crisp new pages.
Old experiences and effigies of character need not be thrown aside to make way for the new. They may be carried along, regarded with equal importance, for their assemblage acts as a pedestal, hoisting you ever higher.
I will hope for this chapter to be a better one, but will not regard it as useless if it is worse.
After many long, dull chapters, I have grown disinterested in my own story. I long to restart, with a fresh page. But a fresh page does not bring with it a fresh heroine. Therefore, I must simply make this one grow.
Simply.
How does one rise to meet a challenge, when the challenge shrinks horizons rather than expanding them? This is my question for this new chapter. If I can find the answer, I am sure I will find with it a greater appreciation for my heroine.
Spilled Inklings 
Hannah
So pleased to read your new post as you enter into a new chapter of your life.I find your post to be filled with peace and determination. At the same time, your knowing that struggle is part of life but not the defining of a life. I see the word “Simply”,
as used in your post, to be a word that you intend to hold on to as you move into the new year. I believe you are on the right path and that you will find the answers you are looking for. Being in community goes a long way in being part of the Simple process and I hope you will continue to reach out as you did on the first day of this new year.
Love, Pepe
Wow, sorry it took me so long to see this! Thank you so much for such a kind, thoughtful comment. I appreciate it so much. 💖
Love, Hannah