Students and teachers get that May-Year-End lift which the rest of us lack.  While they cavort through their days singing, School’s Out For The Summer, we slog through a twelve-month agenda.   I haven’t had the benefit of that newness since my son went away to college and I lost jurisdiction over his summer-time life.  It’s all the same to me now.

But this year, I fixed that. I declared May 28th to be New Year’s Day.  As we headed west to Colorado, I told Jenny Rosen that life began anew with the dawning of the morrow.   I wished the young man at the Starbucks window a Happy New Year.  I’m sure he thought I had been drinking all night.

I don’t care.  I feel liberated.  I spread this exhilaration throughout Boulder and Colorado Springs, randomly and to glorious effect.  The lady who inadvertently blocked my exit from Saturday’s breakfast spot got a hearty handshake instead of a grousing.  Happy New Year! I called to her over my shoulder.  An entire table of women responded in kind.   The man at the bookstore counter enthused over the idea of starting fresh for the summer.  Awesome, he proclaimed.  I’m telling my family, they need a break from the last six months.  I could only imagine.

I’m thinking of this as my emotional fiscal year.  I’m starting fresh, with a balanced budget.  I plan to receive plenty of happiness for the next twelve months, stay in the black, and finish the fiscal year next June with a hefty reserve of joy.

It’s the first day of the thirtieth month of My Year Without Complaining.  Life continues.