And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been.

Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke found his resolve for a new year while standing on a rooftop. In a letter to his wife, Clara, Rilke described the first morning of 1907 as shining “from a brand-new, never used year.” He’d taken a walk the night before, observing “an earth of moonlight, of moon shadow, that keeps still while with strange meaningfulness New Year’s midnight strikes.” In a pensive mood, the author of “Letters to a Young Poet” chose to climb up above the streets of Capri, Italy, to seek a more expansive view. “I had gone back again to my little house and stood up on its roof and wanted to see a good end in all that and to find a good beginning in myself,” he wrote. Rilke’s rooftop reflection reads almost like a benediction, encouraging us to take the time to seek out new perspectives and find the “good beginning” in ourselves when faced with an “untouched” year.