Endings and beginnings have rituals.
New Year’s/New Year’s Eve. Christmas/Christmas Eve. Last day of vacation/first day of school.
Cherish the penultimate. The day before the last day. The rituals of endings and beginnings can lead to a locked-in feeling. You are doing what you always do.
The penultimate day is free of that ritual, but so near the end that you can shake off the old. Enjoy the chance to say goodbye to the old, greet the new, without the rituals that will consume the next two days.
On this penultimate day of 2015, I’m enjoying the opportunity to reflect, look forward, and enjoy my family. Things I will do in the next two days, too. But without the dinner table questions, the avowals, the resolutions, the toasts and ball drops.