The new year so far has been set to Radiohead and Frou Frou with too much black eyeliner and madly-swirled daydreams with sprinkles on top to prove it’s not moping. I’m not fooled though. It’s been hard to face these lumbering gray skies and the remains of last year lying belly-up in the recycling pile. Too many days on that calendar are circled in charcoal and navy, and I’m still not sure I took the right steps to climb out of my mental sludge. 2008 knows, but it will never tell. So I do what little I can to welcome a fresh-faced year I’m unready for: pour myself a mug of hot peppermint tea, light a cluster of candles, and write to discover the good.
A surprise pops up when I glance over a post from one year ago. Despite my pulverized post-partum emotions, 2008 granted me nearly all my weakling hopes. To enjoy my girls, to branch out in cooking, to get confidence in Italian, to take better care of my body, to befriend others, to start down a new spiritual path, to fill myself with others’ words and to fill others with my own… each resolution blossoming quietly while I looked the other way. I would feel sure I floundered through last year if not for the wealth of gifts I hold on this side of it. Several new friends. Morning dates with The Message. Pages upon pages of whimsical love letters to my girls. A recipe treasure trove. Italian vocabulary sets to go with snowboarding, doctor’s visits, board games, babysitting, school, and pie (most important of all, that one). I am rich.
Another surprise: After thinking and thinking and drawing blanks and finally giving up on a word for 2009, I bumped straight into it—Drink—one accidental word to tie up all the loose trails of thought that have wound through my head lately. Drink stands for being present in my own life and rushing headlong into meaningful experiences. It stands for choosing adventure. It stands for refusing to let fear shrivel my decisions and for indulging my ever-present thirst to learn. No resolutions this year, just this one word to live out.
Well, okay, maybe one little resolution: More pie. Yes, that will do.
Happy new year, drink it away!
Drink! Ha…I knew it!
I Love YOU =D And seriously…good word!
I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. In fact, I can’t quite get you out of my head. Weird. I know I’ve intrigued you now. 🙂 When I’ve got some time to think and write I’ll send you an email. I wrote one the other day and just found it in my draft box. I thought it was gone but I’ll add and subtract to that one. I’ve been praying for you. 🙂 It seems like you’re in an important time in your life. Drink seems to fit.
What happens in 2008, stays in…no wait, a minute! It never stays! No matter HOW well-trained it is, each dog-faced year follows at our heels, for better or worse. How nice to find that this one was much more for the better than you had thought. Great post. 🙂
My feed-reader stopped updating you (stupid feed reader) and I thought you’d gone quiet. Happy new year.
Drink sounds like a great plan.