"...maybe this year will be better than the last..."

As 2013 is about to end, I'm thinking about Counting Crow's song "A Long December."   There have been years when the underlying sentiment in the song has been amazingly appropriate for how I felt.

A long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember the last thing that you said as you were leaving
Oh the days go by so fast

Not this year, and not for the past several.  Although the years have gotten better, it's not because the years ending have been difficult ones or unhappy ones.  Quite the contrary.

Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after 2 a.m.
And talked a little while about the year
I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower
Makes you talk a little lower about the things you could not show her 

But there were time when mostly what I had to go on was the hope--the belief--that the year to come would be better.

And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass

 But for the past decade (and a little more), the moments have passed, but I have welcomed the moments as they have arrived.  With a little luck, and a little work, that's how things will continue.

Happy New Year.