The end of the year causes each of us to stop and think about the past year. Newspapers and magazines have ten most interesting stories, ten most memorable photographs, ten this and ten that, the greatest athlete, politician, the most foolish, the greatest medical achievement the most exceptional or the worst of countless matters. Why does it always have to be in superlatives? What about the stuff that brings joy every day? A deep, satisfying breath of fresh air, the color of the sky at sunset, a feeling of warmth when I remember what someone said or did, reading a line of poetry that goes straight to my heart and brings tears to my eyes, the smell of freshly brewed coffee: these, and countless others are how life is lived in the humdrum of everyday. And looking back on the past year, I can’t help but be grateful for so many of those moments. I suppose if I wrote them all down, all of the books in the world could not hold them. (Does that sound familiar?) But if I must come up with the greatest, coolest, most stupendous, grooviest, paramount phenomenon of 2014 for me, it would be that I have life and breath and spirit with which to be aware. That I am is very good. And the fact that you are is equally good. Happy New Year!