After reading the plethora of 2012 Observations, Cogitations and Regurgitations, and New Year  Resolutions, Counter Resolutions,  Affirmations and Reservations, I find the following poem refreshing:

The Year
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

 What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?

 The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.

 We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.

 We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.

 We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.

 We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of the year.

Pretty much says it all!  

I found this article refreshing as well:  New Year’s Resolutions Your Family Can Live With.

And I like this wonderful G.K. Chesterton quote that I found in the Trinity Presbyterian Sunday bulletin:
“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year.
It is that we should have a new soul, and a new nose;
new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes.”