As we prepare to enter a new year, let's take a moment to allow ourselves to release this past year. We can decide right now to let go of anything or anyone during this past year that we no longer wish to carry into the new year. A person with many burdens and problems once came to a minister from New York City named Raymond Charles Barker for advice. "What can I do to escape all these burdens?" he asked. Rev. Barker thought for a moment, and he said, "Just remember one thing— yesterday ended last night." Too often we carry too many of yesterday's hurts and pains around with us, beyond their time. We really don't have to drag last year's sorrows into the new year with us. Why not leave them behind and step into this new year fresh, innocent and open to new life? Let's let go of the old now and spring full-blown, newly alive, into a new year— we let the past be with the past as we open our hearts to this new year.