What a wonderful time to celebrate children! I watched on CNN as the countdown to a new year swept across the time zones. Across borders and cultures, people around the planet joined to honor the past and embrace the future. I have always appreciated New Year's as a time of reflection and inspiration, but its importance for me will now always be more -- a global holiday of peace and goodwill. And as I celebrated with my children, I was struck how children themselves are an enduring reality with many of the same characteristics of the moment of the millenium -- a celebration and delight, a source of inspiration and resolve, a common ground, a common hope -- the future itself!