Happy New Year! Today marks the start of another new year, with new hopes, new challenges, new opportunities, and new realities.

That’s the way most of us were feeling this time last year and then a few weeks later we witnessed Putin’s Folly in Ukraine unleashing suffering on innocents for absolutely no reason other than insanity. Instead of health restrictions from a global pandemic we got geopolitical turbulence and nuclear threats.

Little wonder that some people, including me, are replacing grand ambitions with more realistic expectations for 2023.

In this regard I’m with Erin Monroe, who suggests a different approach to this new year:

“I think we need to set some expectations,” she announced with fervor. “I don’t need 2023 to be my year; I need it to not be a soul-sucking drag through earthly purgatory. I need 2023 to come in, sit down, shut up and don’t touch anything,” she added.

So Happy New Year, but let’s keep 2023 on an even keel.