The Obligatory New Year's Post
I'm sitting here, drinking my coffee creamed with leftover egg nog and noshing on the soda bread my brother made for us for Christmas, consuming the last of the winter holiday festivities. I've scanned my friend's list, and reading everything that you all have had to say about the exit of the old year and the advent of the new, and I am sincerely impressed with the wisdom I see here--with the thoughtfulness and the steadiness with which all my friends manage to approach all milestones, each in their own way but all with such incredible consciousness that it reminds me, yet again, of how proud I am to know each of you.
It has been, for some of us, a year that has kicked some serious ass, both in the good and the not so good ways, and all of us seem a bit relieved that it's over, but are hopefully and optimistically looking forward to a new start, anticipating the year with a sneaking suspicion that, for a number of reasons, 2009 will be a different kind of year than those in the recent past. We are looking forward not only to having a new president, but a new kind of president. We are looking at an economy that has tanked more seriously than it has since the great depression, and yet most of us are feeling that in a tangential way--not just because most of us have not been materially impacted by it, but also because we are looking at wealth and prosperity in a new kind of way, putting it in a clearer and more realistic perspective than perhaps we ever have. We are approaching life and health and family by looking at those we have lost and those we have gained, and so while we look at those precious things yet again, we are looking at them in a new kind of way.
So 2009, like a sonnet, contains the same rigid structure as all those years gone past, with family and work and politics and the economy in place as usual, but within that tightly wrought meter, we see that the words contained within are very, very different. So many realities remain the same, but so many aspects of those realities are standing on tiptoe before the incredible change we anticipate and instinctively sense. In so many ways, things for most of us remain the same--but so many of those reliable routines and structures and habits, we sense, are about to change forever, and we approach them in a new way, and with new perspective.
I can't tell whether what I'm feeling is excitement or anxiety, but on this first new morning of the new year, I tend to think it's the former. Because every day, no matter how routine or mundane, is an opportunity for adventure and growth. Every day successfully navigated with a bit of humor or contentment in it is worthy of a celebration, and every not-so-good day is a day worthy of the repeated self-assurances that we can and we will survive--and overcome. And that is true of every day, of every year, and such reflection should not necessarily be reserved for a milestone day. The awareness of our heroism and our success should not have to wait for January 1st to be brought to the forefront of the mind and recognized.
So while 2009 will present us with new challenges, new successes, new attitudes and new growth, we can rely on our past experience, on our own ability to move forward fearlessly, and with great courage and joy, to see us safely into all those things which feel strange and different.
In the words of our President Elect, oh, my friends, "YES, WE CAN".
And even more importantly, yes, we WILL.
My wish for all of us is that we use this new year well, and that the coming days present for us even more prosperity, even more opportunities for gratitude, and even more true, unfettered and unalloyed JOY than days past may have allowed.
May you all be blessed with the deep and abiding knowledge that you are all special, and that you all deserve all the good things life has to give you--is waiting to give you--and that you unhesitatingly reach for those things and hold them in both your hands, claiming them as your own.
With very much love,
Belle
It has been, for some of us, a year that has kicked some serious ass, both in the good and the not so good ways, and all of us seem a bit relieved that it's over, but are hopefully and optimistically looking forward to a new start, anticipating the year with a sneaking suspicion that, for a number of reasons, 2009 will be a different kind of year than those in the recent past. We are looking forward not only to having a new president, but a new kind of president. We are looking at an economy that has tanked more seriously than it has since the great depression, and yet most of us are feeling that in a tangential way--not just because most of us have not been materially impacted by it, but also because we are looking at wealth and prosperity in a new kind of way, putting it in a clearer and more realistic perspective than perhaps we ever have. We are approaching life and health and family by looking at those we have lost and those we have gained, and so while we look at those precious things yet again, we are looking at them in a new kind of way.
So 2009, like a sonnet, contains the same rigid structure as all those years gone past, with family and work and politics and the economy in place as usual, but within that tightly wrought meter, we see that the words contained within are very, very different. So many realities remain the same, but so many aspects of those realities are standing on tiptoe before the incredible change we anticipate and instinctively sense. In so many ways, things for most of us remain the same--but so many of those reliable routines and structures and habits, we sense, are about to change forever, and we approach them in a new way, and with new perspective.
I can't tell whether what I'm feeling is excitement or anxiety, but on this first new morning of the new year, I tend to think it's the former. Because every day, no matter how routine or mundane, is an opportunity for adventure and growth. Every day successfully navigated with a bit of humor or contentment in it is worthy of a celebration, and every not-so-good day is a day worthy of the repeated self-assurances that we can and we will survive--and overcome. And that is true of every day, of every year, and such reflection should not necessarily be reserved for a milestone day. The awareness of our heroism and our success should not have to wait for January 1st to be brought to the forefront of the mind and recognized.
So while 2009 will present us with new challenges, new successes, new attitudes and new growth, we can rely on our past experience, on our own ability to move forward fearlessly, and with great courage and joy, to see us safely into all those things which feel strange and different.
In the words of our President Elect, oh, my friends, "YES, WE CAN".
And even more importantly, yes, we WILL.
My wish for all of us is that we use this new year well, and that the coming days present for us even more prosperity, even more opportunities for gratitude, and even more true, unfettered and unalloyed JOY than days past may have allowed.
May you all be blessed with the deep and abiding knowledge that you are all special, and that you all deserve all the good things life has to give you--is waiting to give you--and that you unhesitatingly reach for those things and hold them in both your hands, claiming them as your own.
With very much love,
Belle