Jan. 1 marks an odd date on the calendar. It’s both a time to look backward and reflect and a time to look forward and renew.

Accordingly, people mark the passing of the old year and the coming of the new in different ways.

Some see it as a new beginning, a fresh slate, an opportunity to make resolutions and really stick to them this time.

Others see it as nothing more than the sad and threadbare coattails of another sad and threadbare year, a time to ponder all the missed opportunities and mistakes of 12 months now gone — and gone forever.

Still others — and this group is technically correct — see Jan. 1 as they see any other day — as just a day.

And sadly, it seems to us, few see the ending of the old year and the coming of the new as all three: a time for reflection, a time for renewal and a time to bring past reminiscences and future aspirations into a single moment in time — today.

So, today, we invite you to join those few.

Today, we invite you to look both directions — to the past, where experience is forged; to the future, where opportunity awaits; and to the present, where past and future meet in this grand thing we call life.

Reflection is a valuable tool, for it is only through a fearless and honest evaluation of the past that we learn and grow. So, may we look backward, celebrate our victories and acknowledge our defeats, learning from both the things we’ve done right and the things we’ve done wrong.

But, at the same time, may we recognize that the past is gone, and its greatest value is to be found in the way we choose to carry it forward. Life lies ahead, so let the past — both the good and the bad — inform the present and, in so doing, shape the future.

We think the future is potentially bright for Moffat County, but it is also potentially dismal. What it will actually turn out to be rests in our hands and depends upon what we choose to do today, right now, in this moment. Because, when you get right down to it, this moment is all any of us really has.

So, as the tail of 2017 disappears down the throat of 2018, we hope you’ll be informed by the past, inspired by the future and eager to face the day armed with both.

Happy New Year, Moffat County.