The days after Christmas are filled with everyone picking up the pieces from the frazzled days prior to, that sent people into the stores with hoards of others, in hopes of selecting just the right gift for a loved one.  To me the holiday always seems to go by so much faster than the days the preceded it and the clean up around your home can also seem like a monumental task.  I always seem to ask myself the question, didn't I clean this house from top to bottom prior to everyone coming by and why am I now cleaning everything again?  Ah, these are great dilemmas that come with any holiday, but this one in particular because it is the greatest one and to me the key to all of the expected hope in the future along with the impending New Year.  The first thing that comes to mind is the feeling of gratitude and that I was able to reach another milestone holiday along with good health shared with family and friends that were the icing on the cake.  I thought about the many people and children that may have spent their holiday in a hospital room, waiting to hear about their prognosis, with the fate of their health attached to a chart and a doctor that they were waiting for.  It is even more important as a result, for us to be able to hold onto the feeling of this special holiday for as long as possible as there is an insatiable need for the world to feel better along with the rest of us.  Between now and next week when we begin to think about those annual resolutions that we want to take on one more time, we have the opportunity to continue to reflect.  I hope that most of us don't lose the feeling of the natural high associated with great feelings of harmony, being content and inspired with the new coming year.  We should be determined to meet the New Year next week with all of the power that we have that can attract that positive energy that will enable us to achieve far beyond what we ever imagined.  Similar to the thought of child that dreams about what they want to be when they grow up, we should also embrace that sense of optimism that can change part of our world, along with ourselves.  My hope is that we continue to aspire to the new imminent changes that can break us free from those things that held us back and allow our minds to accept that a year with a new beginning can be exactly what the doctor ordered.  Since we can leave the list of gifts behind, lets focus on the personal inventory list that we are creating, so that when 2013 arrives, we peel off another layer that we no longer need and allow ourselves to move forward on our life's journey to become the person we are destined to be.