"You only live once — but if you work it right, once is enough." — Joe E. Lewis

When we moved from Connecticut over three years ago, we bought a home on a lovely tree-lined street.

It appeared to us that everyone on the street must have a lovely life and we would live on a street of happiness forever. How naive was that?

About a month later, a young couple moved into a house around the corner.

Busy with the process of moving in, they didn't notice their toddler had wandered after one of the workers and — in a tragic and heartbreaking moment — was run over by the truck and died.

In addition, several neighbors have had serious medical problems.

Life never comes with a happiness certificate.

A year ago the housing market was slowing, but who could know that the bottom would fall out or that the stock market would be a roller coaster ride that is making us all seasick?

This new year comes with great concerns.

Life is hitting some of us right in the solar plexus. It's as if in the past we were on a gaudy bender where we wanted more and bigger and better.

We spent and spent, and woke up to the reality of all things changed with new rules.

There are some positives becoming evident. Suddenly people are grateful if they have a job — maybe it isn't the perfect job, but they feel lucky to have it. And if they have a home, it is now very appreciated and they aren't wishing for more. It's called gratitude.

On the Channel 13 news a few weeks ago, there was a report about how 20 percent more people are going to the library with their families and borrowing books and DVDs instead of buying them, an indication that they are rethinking the way they do things.

Uncertainty is making us wiser. We are all asking questions of ourselves, perhaps unthought of in the recent past. Questions such as: Do we really need that? What can we really afford? Is there a better way of using our resources?

It may sound simplistic facing all this uncertainty, but since it is a choice as to what each person does with his or her life, it seems that we may as well choose the positive road.

Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote, "There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world."

Happiness is contagious.

Perhaps that's a start to help lift this depression — work at being happy and think about what we can do for the world, even if it is our own little corner of the world.

There is no "street of happiness" because inside the closed doors, life happens, and it is our choice as to what we do with the good and the bad events.

Most of us are pluckier and more resourceful than we think we are. And we have a brand new year to work with.

An absolutely clean slate.

E-mail: sasyoung2@aol.com