This year has cost me in a couple of ways. Earlier in the year I got robbed of something that I’m still feeling, or more precisely, feeling without. Good things eventually came, but it was almost too little too late. But I’m reminded that I’m not the only who has gained something or lost something for that matter.

This time of year is mixed. It is a time of joy and sadness.; a time of giving and reflection. It is a time to say goodbye to the old and welcome the Great Unknown. Because for better or worse, it’s coming, so it pays to be ready. If you’ve done wrong or had wrong done to you. You can’t wind that back, you can only try to make it better. The way out is through.

There are those who make so-called resolutions, all of those little promises that you make to yourself, whether it is to quit smoking or cut some weight, or read a book. You back down on these promises, because to you, your life doesn’t mean that much to you. It’s easy to forget. This year, make a promise to someone else. Right at that New Year, pick a person that means a lot to you and promise them something. Something meaningful, something big. Promise them something that means changing their lives.

Those who do this will do their damndest to stick what they said. Because losing that trust will be greater in value in whatever you bought and wrapped and stuck beneath a tree. You cannot trade or buy back a broken promise. There is no lost property desk for trust or friendship.

In the year that is coming around in the next few moments, I suggest when you go to make that New Year resolution, you put something valuable on the table, something you will lose if you don’t keep up your end of the bargain.

That’s all the wisdom I have for the remainder of this terrible, voracious year. Time to go for a ride. Let loose the Dogs of War and all that.