We are nearing the end of 2019. Wednesday is the first day of the new year — 2020.

There’s nothing significant about Jan. 1 in a geographical or astronomical sense, nothing in the physical world to distinguish the day from any other winter day.

However, for many it is a day with great meaning — it’s a marker in time that expresses our need for a fresh start, a time to resolve to make the future better.

The year 2019 was marred for many by the political divisiveness that roiled the nation, with sharp and undeniable contrasts in the way we see the world. Bitterness, anger, and name-calling claimed a place in our conversation. How we’d like to wave a magic wand and put those divisions to rest.

As the new year nears, we are forced to made individual assessments and reflect on the past. For many, they will quit doing this or that, or start something or the other. Sometimes it works, often it doesn’t.

New Year’s Day is the day when we start over, trading last year’s calendar (and resolutions) for this year’s. With so much of the 2020 story yet to be written, it’s a good time to think about the changes we’d like to see in ourselves, our communities, our leaders and the world around us.

We are fortunate in that our community has been spared from many of the natural calamaties which have stricken other parts of our country — floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, etc.

We have not had any mass shootings, and for that we are thankful.

As we begin a new year we pray for a year without a single mass shooting at a school, a nightclub, a concert, a sporting event, a church, a synagogue, a salon, a newspaper, a restaurant, an airport, a barbershop, a block party, a convenience store….

We pray for a new civility in public discourse, with partisans on both sides remembering that people who disagree with you aren’t necessarily evil. Most of the time, they just have a different point of view. We must remember that all Republicans are not good and that all Democrats are not bad.

As a new year approaches, the one thing we ask our readers to do is to take a deep breath, resolve to be a better person, a better citizen. Give back with your dollars and dimes, especially to children. Commit to local causes that are meaningful and that interest you.

Think of all the good things happening in our community. Our youth are involved in making our communities better. They have made not only their schools proud, but their communities. The Elizabethton Cyclones this year brought home a state championship in football, something that has made us all proud.

We have much for which to be thankful, and whether it’s to lose weight, save more money or quit smoking, the reality is that making a New Year’s resolution is simple goal-setting — something that most of us likely do every day at work or elsewhere in our lives. Some of those achievements are big, and some of them are minor victories. And whether we realize it, most of those achievements came from having a plan.

Lifestyle changes are hard, because our behaviors — both the good and the bad — are developed over time. If you set a resolution to make a change in 2020, recognize that it won’t be easy. But let’s all resolve to make a positive change in the coming 365 days and set a course for achieving it.

New Year’s Day is a holiday of time. It marks another click on the odometer. Some people have lots of miles left. Others measure their lives in tenths of a mile and are happy for it.

Times does not stand still for anyone, and it will not be ignored.

We wish all our readers a Happy and Prosperous 2020!