Today we’re marking the end of one ride around the Sun and the beginning of another. It’s an arbitrary designation, to be certain. But, it’s also a time for reflection on the preceding 365/6 days.

As Jeremy wrote yesterday, 2014 felt dominated by death. Lauren lost her father in January. Eric lost his young daughter. We all lost Chloe. My grandmother passed away just before the holidays. In my life, death has never cut so deep and with such frequency as it did in 2014.

While doing my best to help others navigate the grieving process, I tied my own grief into a knot and buried it low. Over time, the knot grew and metastasized, infected my overall being, and typically manifested as anger and negativity. This corrosive knot led to all manner of misunderstandings and outbursts that could’ve easily been avoided if I were more communicative and honest with those around me. Correcting this is my primary goal for 2015.

While we each experienced our own varied personal tragedies, Jeremy notes that the world still managed to improve in many ways:

Less violence, less disease, fewer wars, a record-breaking minimum of air crashes, and while the disparity between the richest and the poorest has increased, the baseline level of what constitutes poverty continues to increase throughout the world.

In that spirt, I’ll note here a few of the highlights from the past year:

• Lauren and I were fortunate to travel together to Colorado, New York City (twice!), South Korea, Delaware, North Carolina, and various other points around the DC/Maryland/Virginia region.
• After a period of relative inactivity, The Orchid regrouped, adding two new members. We’re currently writing new songs, working out old songs, and looking for shows. Expect new music soon, too.
• Refresh DC wrapped up another successful year of events and I have every confidence that 2015 will be even better.
• I wrote a lot of code.
• I saw a ton of great live music: RX Bandits (twice!), Murder By Death (twice!), The Sound of Animals Fighting, United Nations, Slowdive, Jenny Lewis, Saves The Day, Reggie and the Full Effect, Fairweather, and Black Clouds (twice!)
• I met Big Bird!

Last year was hard. Really hard. But, like Jeremy, I won’t let the bad eclipse the good. The New Year presents an opportunity for a fresh start and I’ll work as hard as I can to take advantage of that opportunity.