Say goodbye to 2014 and hello to the new year. Photo / Thinkstock
Haere ra, old year.
I'm glad to see you go.
In the words of Elizabeth, it's been an annus horribilis.
The good news about the bad news of an annus horribilis is time flies and the good news about that is you're the pilot.
When you have walked through a bad year like the one I have, it is very easy to bathe in self-pity that prolongs the process of recovery, especially when you lose loved ones like a mother, a mokopuna and two favourite aunties.
Throw in your favourite comedian (Robin Williams) a colleague and the collapse - or more like the capitulation - of your local footy team (Steamers) and a summer that has sucked thus far, then the odds of another year with the equivalent annus factor are hopefully pretty slim.
So it's time to pick up the joystick and put this plane back on track and say haere ra to badness and sadness, while time is still flying in my favour.
Haere ra to religion when it comes to carrying a cross of righteous redemption, but only to the chosen few who are willing to terrorise the lives of the innocent who want nothing more than a life of love and peace.
Haere ra to hijackers of our Maori political parties who take mana from the poor and leave it leaderless with little hope and lots more reasons not to trust the so-called system that has let them down for 200 years.
The only upside being - if there is one - is to look not mournfully into the past as it comes not back again. If this is the case perhaps it is time to try something different given the old game is not working.
Year after year we spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, elephant by elephant, making up a memory list of work to be done in our whare.
Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives, kick out the elephants and stop looking for flaws, but for potential?
Why not give it a crack, it costs nothing?
Some say we should treat the New Year like opening up a new book of life and the first chapter is being kind to yourself.
Saying haere ra to sadness and self-centred sympathy because 2014 sucked big time could be cooler than a Chicago Christmas or the crap one we have just had weather-wise here for that matter.
Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility, so therein lays the challenge.
I am good to go so bring it on 2015.
Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits but not so for me this year.
Sure it wouldn't be New Year if I didn't have regrets but once the ref has blown his whistle on 2014 he will never change the past and nor will life's cards that were dealt out in an annus horribilis year.
So laughing at life and the ref has to be worth a crack.
If we resolve to make at least 10 people happy every day, as has been my mantra for the last 20 New Year's resolutions, then in 10 years you may have made 33,650 persons happy, or brightened a small town the size of Katikati by your contribution to the joy chip fund of world-wide happiness.
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused.
Haere ra 2014 and haere mai 2015.
Moe mai ra Mum, I miss you beaucoup.
May we dance as if no one were watching, sing as if no one were listening and live every day as if it were our last - with 10 smiles of happiness sewn in to every one of them in 2015.
This year I challenge you to a new resolution. I challenge you to just be yourself.
• Tommy Wilson is a local best-selling author and writer. -broblack@xtra.co.nz
