Another year is upon us.  For some this represents a new beginning.  For others it is merely the continuation of what has already gone before.  For some it is filled with positive expectation and hope, for others with the dreadful fear that it will be like all the other unfilled years that have already passed.

The news from around the earth speaks of an economic downturn which has affected not only small business but also the bastions of business like the larger banks and so on.  But has anything really changed?  Have we not always had our ups and downs.  Retrospectively what did new years of old usher into the world?

Well, here is a serendipitous list, by no means exhaustive, but sufficient to illustrate a point.

• 0404 - The last gladiator competition was held in Rome.
  
• 1496 - References in Leonardo da Vinci notebooks suggested that he tested his flying machine. The test didn't succeed and he didn't try to fly again for several years.
  
• 1772 - The first traveler's checks were issued in London. 
  
• 1801 - Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi became the first person to discover an asteroid. He named it Ceres. 
  
• 1808 - The U.S. prohibited import of slaves from Africa. 
  
• 1863 - U.S. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all slaves in the rebel states were free. 
  
• 1901 - The Commonwealth of Australia was founded. Lord Hopetoun officially assumed the duties as the first Governor-General. 
  
• 1909 - The first payments of old-age pensions were made in Britain. People over 70 received five shillings a week. 
  
• 1925 - In Italy, Mussolini announced that he would take dictatorial powers. 
  
• 1935 - Bob Hope was heard for the first time on network radio as part of "The Intimate Revue."
  
• 1942 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued a declaration called the "United Nations." It was signed by 26 countries that vowed to create an international postwar World War II peacekeeping organization. 
  
• 1952 - "Peanuts" debuted in Sunday papers across the U.S.
  
• 1958 - The European Economic Community (EEC) started operations. 
  
• 1995 - The World Trade Organization came into existence. The group of 125 nations monitors global trade. 
  
• 1960 - U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
  
• 1961 - "Mr. Ed" debuted. The show would run for six years. 
  
• 1962 - New York City introduced a train that operated without conductors and motormen. 
  
• 1965 - Poet T.S. Eliot died at age 76.
  
• 1966 - "Batman" debuted on ABC-TV. 
  
• 1969 - The supersonic aeroplane Concorde made its first trial flight, at Bristol. 
  
• 1983 - The musical "Annie" closed on Broadway at the Uris Theatre after 2,377 performances. 
  
• 1988 - Margaret Thatcher became the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th century. 
  
• 2003 - It was reported that scientists in China had found fossilized remains of a dinosaur with four feathered wings. 
  
• 2005 - Keanu Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• 2009 - Barack Obama is sworn in as 44th President of the US

The truth is that every year brings people, events, and occasions that are judged to be "good" or "bad".  But if this has been a constant feature of history, then what makes the real difference to us?

The deeper question is "What is the news regarding our inner world?"

Ask yourself:

• What is beginning?
  
• What is ending?
  
• What is arriving?
  
• What is leaving?
  
• What is bringing us closer to our true purpose, fulfillment and happiness?
  
• What is taking us further from our true purpose, fulfillment and happiness?

And:

• After the novelty of the new year is gone, when the promise of impulsive new year resolutions has faded, when the year has broken from a canter into a gallop, where are we really heading?

And then:

• What are we prepared to do about it?  

Here's to a more authentic New Year.  Cheers!