I woke up in someone else乌鸦传媒檚 bed the other morning. The alarm was beeping. I tried to whack the snooze button, but the alarm wasn乌鸦传媒檛 where it should be.

I realized I was also sharing the bed with a large St. Bernard-cross dog. And two cats.

Then I remembered. I was at my daughter乌鸦传媒檚 house, watching over her house, her pets, her plants, and her son, while she and my granddaughter were driving to California, where my granddaughter plans to start her new life, which involves 乌鸦传媒� well, you don乌鸦传媒檛 need all the details.

My point is, I was in an unfamiliar setting. Where I didn乌鸦传媒檛 know where to find my regular breakfast cereal, which I need to keep myself regular 乌鸦传媒� What? Too many details again?.

But it乌鸦传媒檚 the details that make the difference. As the saying goes, 乌鸦传媒淭he devil is in the details.乌鸦传媒� A bed is a bed; a house is a house. But doing without All-Bran is a crisis.

In any kind of new life, a multitude of details, old and new, will keep tripping you up.

This 乌鸦传媒渘ew year乌鸦传媒� is a perfect example. You turn over a sheet on your wall calendar. It乌鸦传媒檚 blessedly blank. But you still have last year乌鸦传媒檚 commitments to fulfil. And last year乌鸦传媒檚 credit card charges to pay.

The baggage of life tags along, like it or not.

I fell in love last year. With someone who lives and works a thousand miles away. Our relationship is sometimes torrid, sometimes tentative. Because we both drag a lifetime of baggage with us 乌鸦传媒� family, friends, responsibilities, property乌鸦传媒�

Travelling light is not easy.

Starting anything new乌鸦传媒攚hether a year or a relationship 乌鸦传媒� requires deliberately letting go of some things. For example, I didn乌鸦传媒檛 attempt to put up all of my wife Joan乌鸦传媒檚 decorations this last Christmas. She loved turning our home into something festive, with candles and streamers and embroidered Christmas stockings and little gray mice on the mantlepiece dancing around a music-box Christmas-tree that tinkles Jingle Bells.

But the house doesn乌鸦传媒檛 feel festive with just me in it. Me, and my cat. Who delights in knocking brightly coloured glass balls onto the floor.

I feel like the ghost of Christmas past as I sweep the debris into a dustpan.

乌鸦传媒楾was ever thus. Before I got married, my family didn乌鸦传媒檛 decorate the Christmas tree until Christmas Eve. We didn乌鸦传媒檛 take down our decorations until Twelfth Night, January 6. I burned the tree goodbye in our backyard.

I had to let go of some of those traditions when I married Joan. We needed to create new traditions together. You can乌鸦传媒檛 move on, tethered to yesterday乌鸦传媒檚 anchors.

Maybe New Year乌鸦传媒檚 is a good time for self-examination. To identify some of those anchors. 乌鸦传媒淪tuff乌鸦传媒� we乌鸦传媒檝e accumulated. Assumptions we乌鸦传媒檝e taken for granted.

Letting go means taking the risk of letting go of the wrong things. Like a friendship. A favourite activity. A vocation. Getting rid of a mountain while keeping a molehill.

The arrival of a new calendar year should remind us that every year 乌鸦传媒� indeed, every day, every hour 乌鸦传媒� is the start of something new. We cannot know what lies ahead, good or bad. The best we can do is travel light.

Jim Taylor lives in Lake Country: rewrite@shaw.ca