There are those interesting nights where you find yourself completely exhausted and ready to sleep but, once you lay your head on the pillow, you find that sleep is not yet ready for you. You’re not exactly restless yet not exactly preoccupied, not exactly excited yet not exactly troubled. It’s a little like being uncomfortable in your own skin, an actor attempting to portray having a sinus headache in a TV commercial for over-the-counter sinus headache medication.

Your thoughts drift seamlessly between what was, what is, and what may yet come to be—the due date you keep changing for the task you’ve meant to complete for months … whether to shave tomorrow or wait one more day … how you’d like to one day have a drink with that person whose thoughts you just read because somehow they read your own.

It’s looking back and looking forward, all at the same time. Which is, today, where we find ourselves.

New Year’s Eve.

If you’re like me, this time last year held little indication—maybe a few hints here and there—of what 2013 would fully hold in store. But one thing would come to be certain: the year was exceptional. It was exceptional in the missed chances and the seized opportunities, alike.

To me, rather than a farewell, New Year’s Eve is the one true chance we have to say, “hello,” to the past 364 days. This is the one true chance to see how all the pieces fit into a puzzle of our own making. The other 364 days move too damn fast to watch the process. The other 364 days offer a puzzle that’s incomplete.

So today, before ringing in 2014—or before falling asleep prior to the clock striking midnight—take a minute to say, “hello,” to 2013. That, my friends, is the first piece to building the puzzle of 2014.

Cheers to you, and all my best wishes for your new year …

*clink*