In Whidbey Island’s latitude, from Dec. 20 onward, the dark days begin to shuck off their somber hues second by second, and a dark-weary world peers out like an expectant groundhog, blinking warily against the promise of days growning longer.

By the middle of January there will be a noticeable lengthening of the days, seed catalogues will have a pre-eminent place on coffee tables and young people will become fancier by the second, anticipating spring.

With a new year in the offing, there is a reluctant reviewing of mistakes, shortcomings and plans gone wrong. There is a spark of hope … that things will be better, opportunities in abundance, and peace, contentment and prosperity are just around the corner.

To love life is contingent on many small things that surround us. The secret in seeing these small things.

A sudden snow-squall against a street light, a wheeling gull, the scream of a woodpecker, birds quarreling over berries.

A friend calling to remind us about a television program, bowl of fat butterbeans and ham from a neighbor, bird tracks in snow, foolhardy narcissus tall and green, awaiting spring prematurely, a rail fence and green fir boughs, an afternoon to paint flowers or write poetry, putter about or put the garage in order.

Old friends, like a good book, warm the heart and fit cozily into a winter picture. The kids planning a 25-year school reunions have no corner on plans.

“Wouldn’t it be good to get all the old-timers together again?” someone said, thinking back 20 or 30 years, or more. The old gang, now scattered, some retired, some working at other work besides newspapering, but all remembering how it was. Remembering good times and forgetting bad ones, one of the reasons the human race has lasted as long as it has.

With memories of good times, the worst times lose some of their abrasiveness. Time has a way of healing wounds of pettiness, injustice or just plain cussedness. We’ll have a reunion in the summer, when snowbirds are back from Arizona, when the weather has warmed for a beach foray. It will be good to see old friends. And we have plenty of time to plan.

Which takes us well into 2003, seen from this place in time. Full of food resolutions, like getting next Christmas organized ahead of time, learning to eat zucchini and liking it, taking time to prowl the San Juans, all of them; visit people we haven’t seen in months and who live all of three blocks away; join an art group; write a book; learn a new craft; to walk slowly and sedately; make new friends and hold onto the old.

Happy New Year!

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