![\"Firework\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/purple-fireworks-with-stars-150x150.png?resize=150%2C150\")
<\/h2>\n<\/h2>\n<\/h2>\nWe celebrate a new beginning today, January 1, 2015. We do this despite the ancient traditional celebration of a new year with the rebirth of Spring in March. Our present calendar retains evidence<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> in the names of those months not changed to honorifics by the Romans. The tenth month was named for “decem<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>” (ten); the ninth for “novem<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>“; the eighth for “octo<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>“; the seventh for “septem<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>“. Although it was logical, we no longer follow the old tradition and, instead, begin a new year today.<\/p>\n We use\u00a0 fireworks to scare off evil spirits. We hold close those dear to us. We eat special foods to both remind us of good luck and as wishful talismans for more. We will enjoy black-eyed peas (a humble food ignored by Sherman’s terrorists that provided sustenance for residents left to suffer), and cabbage for greens (fermented or pickled greens have a long life, despite recent attempts to make it a symbol of cash) and pork (always a celebratory food, in part because pigs root forward not backwards like birds do; a sign of progressing instead of retreating).<\/p>\n With a light heart and a hopeful mind, let’s look forward with faith in our God and trust in serendipity knowing that every day is TODAY and the only chance we ever get to make a change for the better is NOW. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[66,35],"class_list":["post-1340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-noteworthy","category-personalphilosophical","tag-history-2","tag-spirituality","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1DORt-lC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1340"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1355,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions\/1355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Friends\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Friends-300x300.jpg?resize=300%2C300\")
<\/p>\n![\"New](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gpsman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/New-Year-Food.gif?resize=600%2C150\")
<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n
This is my toast and sincere wish for you this new year.<\/h3>\n
With a light heart and a hopeful mind, let’s look forward with faith in our God and trust in serendipity knowing that every day is TODAY and the only chance we ever get to make a change for the better is NOW. Let’s rid ourselves of evil spirits, show our love to our friends, remind ourselves of Providence, celebrate with an optimism for the future and hope for a long life!<\/h5>\n
Tony<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"