Why I Love a New Year
The Christmas/New Year season is always a time of reflection and introspection for me, as I suspect it is for most people. This year has been no exception. Reflection and introspection are the main reasons why I love a new year.
Since Thanksgiving I’ve written very little, mainly because I’ve been incredibly busy. I’ve run a half marathon, traveled a little, cooked a lot, knitted some, and spent not nearly enough time with my children. Not writing became an activity in itself, even though snippets of future posts kept bubbling to the surface at odd hours of the day and night, begging to be written.
New Year’s Eve is one of my favorite days of the year. There’s such a sense of fulfillment that comes from having lived another year, and a feeling of anticipation for the year to come. This year the day coincided with my regular Saturday group long run, which is almost always culminated by breakfast at Fuzzy’s Tacos. Though different groups run different speeds, everyone always comes together afterwards to eat, visit, and talk about our run. A lot of Saturdays I enjoy breakfast much more than my run.
Being able to visit with so many great friends, old and new, on the very last day of the year made it that much more special. I had come full circle, running with friends who were with me when I began training for my first half marathon almost five years ago.
The older I get the more I realize: the relationships we build with others are truly what matter the most in life.
Even though it is “just another day,” the first day of a new year brings with it the idea of a new beginning, a chance to start again, a brand new, fresh, blank page. Ever since logging the morning’s temperature on January 1 each year in my little five year diary when I was a kid, I usually take some time to reflect and write something on New Year’s Day. I’ve always loved buying a new agenda for the year and filling it in with birthdays, future races, and vacations. This year, because of my son’s unexpectedly generous Christmas gift, I’m doing it all electronically on a brand new iPad2.
I’m not one for resolutions. They’re almost always forgotten within a few weeks, if not days. I usually prefer to think about what I want to do more or less of in the new year. I remember one year’s plan was to “find more joy.” I think I’ll always work on that. This year, my plan is to have less clutter in my life–and my house. I think I’ll always work on that as well.
Mostly, I want to get out and do more. Staying home doesn’t create memories. Adventures do.
I’ve always wanted to be somewhere else. Even when I’m on vacation in the most beautiful places in the world, I’m planning my next trip. Call it restlessness, call it dissatisfaction, call it nonacceptance . Whatever it is, I’m still working on learning to accept that wherever I am is where I should be.
And it truly is about the journey, not the destination.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone! Here’s to a great year of adventure, acceptance, and a clutter-free life (and house).
Mind Margins 
Happy New Year. I love your perspective that friends and advenutres make the world a better place. An iPad2, huh? Have fun!
Thank you so much, and Happy New Year to you as well! I’ve always loved adventures, but it’s taken me a long time to truly appreciate having good friends. As I get older, they mean even more to me. And, yes, I am loving the new iPad. I’ve been spending more time playing on it, though, than writing!
Your comments about restlessness reminded me of an adage that was popular in the late 1960s: Be here now. I’ll agree it’s much easier said than done.
Steve Schwartzman
http://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com
I don’t know why it’s so hard for me, but it is. I think I would be happiest living on the road. Maybe I should have been born ten years earlier.
You’re right, our “resolutions”, or at least what we want for ourselves, are very similar: go and do, enjoy our lives, enjoy the people in our lives, declutter…
I always wanted adventure, but it’s not in my nature to go and make an adventure.
Nice gift!! I’m glad you’re having fun with it.
Not buying it, skippingstones! You seem like a very adventurous person, you’ve just been playing it safe all these years!
I LOVE the iPad! However, I’m already addicted to Words with Friends (Scrabble). Instead of writing I’ve been playing that damn game!
This post popped up for me, 5 years after you posted – and it still applies. Wishing you a Happy New Year, more adventure and journeys and whatever else your heart desires.