Cheers to challenges, changes, chances and choices in 2015: By Chester Borrows MP

IDENTITY: The 100th anniversary commemorations of Gallipoli will be a huge event next year. PHOTO/SUPPLIED A-WTA300714SUPGALLIPOLI

I AM writing this column on Christmas morning and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself until I realised that of the 937 personally hand-written cards that I have sent, I left off a couple of personal VIPs and now feel like a bit of a jerk.

I guess Christmas can be a bit like that. Everything is all rush and bluster to get stuff done, the presents bought, car packed, the list of jobs ticked off ... and then when you get a chance to sit down, you find you've missed the point.

It is a bit like the mother-of-the-bride tearing around looking for the prettiest church, the best photographer and the nicest venue, with the most expensive dress only to find that it isn't about the wedding - it is about the marriage. Christmas is not about the fuss.

Writing this message for Boxing Day publication, though, is not so much looking back as looking forward.

The year has been a doozie after elections - both the general election and byelections - publicity we both did and didn't want; arguments that were settled and a few that are still brewing.

One thing is for certain is that 2015 will bring us things to debate which will mean there will be both consensus and disagreement - so nothing new there.

There will be the completion of building projects that change the landscape, offer new jobs and create expectations that Whanganui will stand, stick its chin out and forge a new progressive and prosperous track for itself.

The response to economist Shamubeel Eaqub's dire analysis seemed very much in this vein and was pleasing to witness.

There will be the new people who come to take up roles in our work or school or church or footy club, or live next door or buy the local dairy we patronise. With their arrival there will be some change and this will be a threat to some, a challenge to others and, after a honeymoon period, assessments will be made.

There will inevitably be changes to government policy which will leave some happy and some not so much, so nothing new there, either.

But in all this change or lack of it, there seems to be underlined the old truth that life is not what happens to us but how we respond to those things that happen to us.

Two happenings will shape our lives as New Zealanders in 2015; one old and one new.

The 100th anniversary commemorations of Gallipoli will give us pause for thought on our values, aspirations, national identity and we will do some self-assessment. In Rugby World Cup year, we will come to realise we are better than just sport.

The current "happening" that will shape us is the impact of international dairy prices and the threat to our economy that a 50 per cent drop in income from such a big chunk of our GDP will impact on business, and so salaries, job prospects, interest rates, inflation and so on.

But my prediction is that we will learn a lesson we need to re-learn every decade or so.

There is more to New Zealand than just cows.

In the meantime, it's Christmas.

My brother-in-law is up and there are murmurings among the rest of the household.

Soon there will be an enormous feast prepared and assembled and we will eat half of it and wonder why we bothered to over extend the budget on food so unnecessarily and so force the extension of buckle holes, belt loops, and our resolve to lose more weight in the new year fast approaching.

Christmas isn't about just the feed either. It is about the gift of life, hope for the future, and promises yet to be fulfilled.

I will look on 2015 not as a year of inevitabilities but of possibilities and opportunities.

Not one of done deals with certain endings but of choices to make and chances to be taken, goals to be set and realised.

Not begrudging acceptance, but careful reflection ... because history we can't change, but our future is ours to make.