Happy New Year!!! (Patricia Potter)
posted by Patricia Potter
on
Saturday, December 29, 2007
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Saturday arrives with increasing frequency. Oh, oh, it's my turn to blog. Vacation or not. Ready or not. Deadline or not. Topic or not. I groan a bit on Friday night. But then I start writing, and I always surprise myself at how much I enjoy it.
And even how much I learn about myself. Writing about life and writing and friendships often brings emotions/memories/feelings lurking deep inside to the light of day.
Unlike many writers, I’ve never kept a journal. I advise aspiring writers to do so, but I’ve never been very good at following my own advice. It’s a curse. I do, however, jot down impressions on spare pieces of paper: an unusual face, a particular shade of blue eyes, a striking sunset. A mountain decked in snow. I promptly lose those pieces of paper, but the words remain in my mind, ready to surface at exactly the right time.
That brings me, in a roundabout way, to – roll the drums – New Year’s resolutions.
I love New Year's Day, especially since it’s also my birthday. I’ve always thought it rather neat that I was born on such an auspicious day. It made me special, never mind that I just missed being a tax deduction and was the second baby born that morning in the hospital (missed all the gifts).
Despite those failures, my parents seemed pleased enough to keep me and I’m particularly grateful for that fact now that I’m writing a suspense novel about babies switched at birth.
Because of that birth date, I’ve always felt a particular responsibility to make those infamous resolutions. Like my advice, I seldom make good on them, but I try. For a few days, anyway.
So these are mine – in no particular order -- this year:
1. Not to be so impatient. With people. With events. With myself. Slow down, take a deep breath and enjoy life.
2. Spend more time on and at the ocean, even if I have to beg, steal or
crawl to get there. It renews and freshens me in a way nothing else does.
3. Enjoy writing again. I’m well on the way. My new book is going gloriously well after a siege of writer’s block in 2007.
4. Be kind. I’m resolved to do one good deed a day. It might be just a smile for a harried clerk, or being gracious on the road, but hopefully something a bit better.
5. Never ever volunteer for president – or anything else – again. I’m the world’s biggest turkey at taking jobs no one else wants.
6. Adopt a few more dogs. You can never have too many. Their love is unconditional and their welcoming joyous.
7. Somehow – someway – find more time to read. Because of deadlines and an ill mother, I just don't seem to have the time to really indulge. But now I’m reading a marvelous book (Deborah Smith’s “A Gentle Rain”) and realize how very much I miss and need it.
8. Expand my garden. Beauty makes my heart sing.
9. Become more frugal with exceptions for the above.
10. Continue to be grateful for this community and all who visit here.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
And even how much I learn about myself. Writing about life and writing and friendships often brings emotions/memories/feelings lurking deep inside to the light of day.
Unlike many writers, I’ve never kept a journal. I advise aspiring writers to do so, but I’ve never been very good at following my own advice. It’s a curse. I do, however, jot down impressions on spare pieces of paper: an unusual face, a particular shade of blue eyes, a striking sunset. A mountain decked in snow. I promptly lose those pieces of paper, but the words remain in my mind, ready to surface at exactly the right time.
That brings me, in a roundabout way, to – roll the drums – New Year’s resolutions.
I love New Year's Day, especially since it’s also my birthday. I’ve always thought it rather neat that I was born on such an auspicious day. It made me special, never mind that I just missed being a tax deduction and was the second baby born that morning in the hospital (missed all the gifts).
Despite those failures, my parents seemed pleased enough to keep me and I’m particularly grateful for that fact now that I’m writing a suspense novel about babies switched at birth.
Because of that birth date, I’ve always felt a particular responsibility to make those infamous resolutions. Like my advice, I seldom make good on them, but I try. For a few days, anyway.
So these are mine – in no particular order -- this year:
1. Not to be so impatient. With people. With events. With myself. Slow down, take a deep breath and enjoy life.
2. Spend more time on and at the ocean, even if I have to beg, steal or
crawl to get there. It renews and freshens me in a way nothing else does.
3. Enjoy writing again. I’m well on the way. My new book is going gloriously well after a siege of writer’s block in 2007.
4. Be kind. I’m resolved to do one good deed a day. It might be just a smile for a harried clerk, or being gracious on the road, but hopefully something a bit better.
5. Never ever volunteer for president – or anything else – again. I’m the world’s biggest turkey at taking jobs no one else wants.
6. Adopt a few more dogs. You can never have too many. Their love is unconditional and their welcoming joyous.
7. Somehow – someway – find more time to read. Because of deadlines and an ill mother, I just don't seem to have the time to really indulge. But now I’m reading a marvelous book (Deborah Smith’s “A Gentle Rain”) and realize how very much I miss and need it.
8. Expand my garden. Beauty makes my heart sing.
9. Become more frugal with exceptions for the above.
10. Continue to be grateful for this community and all who visit here.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
Patricia Potter
Tara Taylor Quinn
Maggie Shayne
Anne Stuart
Suzanne Forster
Lynn Kerstan
13 Comments :
I posted a pile of resolutions in response to Lynn's post, Pat, so to reply to yours, I'm going to talk about the magick involved in this tradition.
See, in times of old, the beginning of the new year (which was, to farming cultures, often the day after the winter solstice, or the first full moon or first new moon after the winter solstice) was a time to do magickal workings. It was a time to predict the future, and there were dozens of ways of doing so, from staring into the flames of the yule fire, to peeling an apple in one continuous strand to see what letter it would form when dropped, to a dozen other methods. The first guest of the new year was said to be an indication of what your entire year would be like. It was also a time for giving your future a nudge, and this was done by making wishes and adding power to them (through herbs or chants or candles) to make them come true in the coming year. Writing them on paper and burning them in the yule fire was a method too.
So now we call those wishes "resolutions" but they're just as much a form a folk magick as they ever were. (So are birthday candles, by the way.)
When you speak your desire, and release it to the universe, it shoots out there to begin the process of "becoming." And as long as you believe in it, and don't block it out, it has to manifest for you sooner or later.
So I love resolutions. They're an old, old form of folk magick and that's my thing, after all!
Happy new year!
Maggie
Happy New Year and Happy Birthday!
Cheryl
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATRICIA (a few hours early). I never make resolutions because I never keep them. Maggie I always wondered about where the tradition came from but never thot to look it up. Thanks.
I look forward to your Saturday posts and enjoy them, each and every. Particular ones I remember are the annual pecan gift-making and the yard sales along your block and the dog walks.
Happy birthday, happy new year! Wish you batches of magick in the coming months.
Happy New Year and a Happy Birthday!
An early happy birthday, Pat!
I don't do resolutions either, but if I did, I could almost do yours without any changes, lol. They're great.
Suz
What a great list, and best wishes for your birthday.
I love your resolutions to spend more time on and at the ocean and to adopt a few more dogs. You've inspired me to include fun resolutions in my list. Maybe the problem with resolutions is that they are usually things you will grit your teeth to get through. I'm going to have at least one that's totally hedonistic. Not suggesting that any of yours are totally hedonistic --- just saying that at least one of mine will be,lol.
Hope your birthday wishes come true!
Mary M
What a awesome Birthday!! You must do some serious celebrating for your Birthday what a way to start the New Year.
Your resolutions sound great however I set the bar to high for myself and i'm always disapointed so what i do now is take a personal inventory and tell myself things i would like to work on that way the pressure is off and i might actually succeed at some of the things i work on. Good Luck to you and Have one very Happy New Years Birthday!!!
Happy New Year to you too! I've always wished that I could be one that would write memories and such down, but I've never been good at journaling. I guess I just do it a different way...I take pictures.
I really like your resolutions, they aren't an imposibility like some I've tried before. Have you ever tried audio books? I listen to them when I exercise. I find my exercises much more enjoyable now a days! BG!
Happy early Birthday to you!
Thanks... Happy New Year!
It must not be great to have a B-day during the holidays... less gifts!
Happy New Year and Happy Birthday... a lot of celebration ahead!
I've given up on making actual resolutions since I never seem to think of them after the day I make them.
I guess there are just certain things that I know I have to learn to do each day and those are my resolutions. Of course, they may come to me at any time of the year.
But it's really not strange at all, as Maggie pointed out, that the solstice, or the day after, should be a time of renewal and hope. Once the ancients realized that it wasn't going to keep on getting darker every day, that had to bring renewed hope for life. I know too little about the actual invention of the calendar to determine why the "new year" doesn't begin on December 23 or so, and even the month's name is odd since it has nothing to do with the 10th month. I'm too weary to look up calendars now but maybe one of these days I will.
Happy New Year to all of you.
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