There are so many endings to the sentence that run through my mind and I’m sure through yours. As we head into yet another January (and my, don’t they come quicker each time?), it’s time to commit to finishing the sentence and acting upon it.

Resolution-the term given to making a commitment to something new-is bantered about this time each year and many of us doggedly go at it-for a while at least. But are we making resolutions about the things that are important? Are we committing ourselves to things that really matter?

I would say that losing a few pounds is a good goal; however, it is not the most necessary thing in the world. Going to a gym or starting any type of exercise program is not a bad thing-it will truly help you feel better.

But more important than things like these are the commitments involving people and your interactions with them. Make 2016 a time to visit people, to see and talk to them. And by talk, it’s not by email or via text message. Put down the cell phones that have nearly become physically attached to our hands and make eye contact with those to whom you are speaking. Don’t email the co-worker down the hall-get up and walk down there.

Over the past year, I can say that I have attended nearly a dozen funerals. These are people I will not see again in this lifetime. And these are people, many of them, whom I should have spent more physical time with. Now that possibility does not exist.

Rather than live with regrets about not seeing family and friends-now is the time to spend that quality visit and share stories and conversation. Spend time looking back over old photographs and learning family history. (The knowledge of who is who and how they are related can quickly be lost if not verbally shared!)

Put aside this age of digital media and electronic gadgets and make this the year you don’t let go by without rekindling friendships, visiting family and making the most of personal interaction. Don’t let actual face to face contact become a lost art.