BLANK PAGES IN AN OPEN BOOK

The chance to start anew

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day. —Edith Lovejoy Pierce (1904–1983)

Let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been. —Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926)

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering “it will be happier.” —Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)

We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives … not looking for flaws, but for potential. —Ellen Goodman (b. 1941)

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice. —T. S. Eliot (1888–1965)

The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals. —Melody Beattie (b. 1948)

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. —G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936)

Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of success is in turning that diary into the best story you possibly can. —Douglas Pagels

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. —Oprah Winfrey (b. 1954)

No, this is not the beginning of a new chapter in my life; this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already closed, ended, and tossed into the seas; this new book is newly opened, has just begun! Look, it is the first page! And it is a beautiful one! —C. JoyBell C.

The chief beauty about time Is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next

hour are lying ready for you, As perfect, as unspoiled, As if you had never wasted or

misapplied A single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every

hour If you choose. —Arnold Bennett (1867–1931)