Thanksgiving has come and gone and here at the Herald, our staff hope your holiday was a joyous one with family and friends.

Like so many, we are just as thankful for those who continue to support local journalism and your local newspaper. We are a proud part of this community and we hope to continue bring you as much news as we can about your community.

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season as anxious eyes now turn to the Christmas season. In a year that, at best, can be labeled as contentious in the world around us, let this mark a renewed effort to match the spirit of the holiday with a new push towards civility and kindness to your neighbor.

2018 has not been an easy year with politics, violence and natural disasters seemingly gobbling up the newsprint. It’s easy to become lost in the bleak circumstances surrounding us, but we don’t need to let it define us.

Each harmful act can be met with an equally positive reaction. It’s one of the things that defines human nature — the ability to realize the flaws in ourselves and actively work toward improvement.

The Christmas holiday marks the perfect time to realize that while we may not always agree with one another, we can live with one another in honor and mutual respect. To disregard the petty and trivial and to accept all those living around us.

Carl Sagan summed this up in the final paragraph of his now famous “Pale Blue Dot” speech, referencing a just as famous image of our planet, photographed in a ray of sunlight by Voyager 1 on Feb. 14, 1990:

“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

We are the sum of our neighborhood and if we can take this one tiny step to be better to one another, then we take one step more to being better as the whole of our city, our state, our country and our planet.

From all of us here at the Austin Daily Herald, may the remainder of your 2018 be filled with joy and happiness.

Happy holidays!