Happy New Year everyone. I hope the dawn of 2015 brings hope, peace and joy for a happy healthy new year.

We were explaining to my daughter this week about the family traditions for new year's celebrations before Thursday. My wife, Katie, explained why we eat pork on New Year's Day and seafood on New Year's Eve.She explained to Kathryn that meats like poultry are not eaten on New Year's Day because traditionally chickens and turkeys stretch backward and cast a light of looking at the past onto the beginning of the year instead of looking forward. For the same reason, we eat pork because pigs don't typically walk backward; they only move forward.I was not aware that not all fish are appropriate for New Year's Day until she explained it, but it makes sense to me. Seafood like lobster and crabs tend to move backward, which is good for New Year's Eve as we reflect on the past, but are a bad omen on the first day of the new year for the same reason.Some fish are good choices such as cod, herring, roe and sardines. I know my neighbor used to feed my father pickled herring as a traditional New Year's Eve dish for good luck. Our family has traditionally eaten seafood on New Year's Eve and pork and sauerkraut on New Year's Day. I think we have kept that tradition no matter what else was happening in our lives.New Year's is always a time to plan and to look forward, to clear the page and begin anew. While our intentions are usually honorable, the idea of making and keeping resolutions tends to be more difficult than we expect. I know personally I have a hard time keeping resolutions and probably have a very low average with being successful.I am fairly certain I am not alone. Usually if someone asks me if I'm making a resolution I will either say no, or if I'm feeling cynical I will say, "Sure. I'm stopping …" followed by some nonsensical thing like smoking a pipe or speeding on a motorcycle. The response is something like "But I didn't know you did that." I usually answer with, "I don't. That's why I 'm resolving to continue not to do it."It is hard to break habits, and it really does not have to wait for New Year's Day. We should make a resolution daily to improve ourselves. When you stop to think about it, each day is a new, fresh start. It is silly to wait for one day each year on which we can begin anew. We can start anew each day we wake and rise out of bed.So even if you missed making your resolution on New Year's Day, you can just as easily do it now. Or if you made a resolution on New Year's Day only to find you already broke it, just start over. That is the great thing about life. If we really want to we can always begin again. It may be challenging, but it is always possible.Hopefully the mystery that began this last week of 2014 has been solved by today, namely the loss of Flight QZ8501, which disappeared over the Java Sea. While the mysterious disappearance brought back memories of Malaysian Flight 370 last March, many felt at the beginning of the week this would not be the case. This flight disappeared over heavily traveled air space and shallow water.Of course it is possible as you read this the jet is still missing, which would mean two aircraft have disappeared in one year with no resolution. Flight 370 has been gone for 10 months now with no satisfactory explanation as to where it went. The difference between the two is while both jets are gone, QZ8501 was flying and communicating as usual, while Flight 370 was cut off from within the plane with turned-off transponders and an unauthorized alteration of the flight path. Searches for this flight have turned up no definite answers.The theories at this point range from plausible to crazy including pilot suicide, plane malfunction, hijacking by the pilot for a foreign terrorist group and even a dimensional shift or alien abduction. What is strange is that if the plane crashed, there should have been evidence. Many of the contents of a jet float, yet there was nothing in the ocean. So where did the plane go?We will probably never know, but hopefully with QZ8501 authorities will find the jet and provide some type of closure for the families of the passengers.One final note. I would just like to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of a man I admired. My neighbor and friend John E. Bryant passed away last Tuesday. He was a humble, compassionate, patient man. He left behind a wonderful wife, Faye, three daughters and their husbands and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I met Jack when I moved to Hazard Street, and we talked quite a bit over the past 20 years.I would see them on the porch, and before you know it, we would spend a half-hour or more in conversations.He was a devout Methodist, a proud veteran of World War II and a great man. He told me stories about his experiences in the Pacific and was always willing to talk about almost anything. He was the grand marshal for last year's Memorial Day Parade, and I'm so glad he had that opportunity. We will miss you Jack, but you will always be in our hearts.Till next time …