We're taking down trees.
The end of year is gliding toward us, both inexorable and benevolent. A fresh start. You all know, if you've read any of my New Year posts of the past, how much I cherish the blank slate of the new year, the possibility and even inevitability of newness, a sparkling restart button for all those who have been too tired or muddled to make proper use of Mondays or other such beginnings.
Here is an opportunity to step into a new pattern. A time when we are practically expected to break a champagne bottle on the deckrail of the year ahead, expecting goodness to come. And of course, this can be dreadfully overwhelming. It is one of my favorite times of year, and even so, as it hurtles toward us each December I have the urge to think it’s coming too soon or too fast. But perhaps it comes just when we need it to. When we wouldn't have chosen to crawl out of Christmas quite so quickly. When it would hardly have occurred to us to write brand new lists, and start our favorite cycles again. A time to turn over whatever leaves you choose, and not dilly-dally about it.
It comes just in time. When the thought of the holidays' excesses going on makes you feel a bit queasy, its a time to sweep the crumbs from the table and bring out a clean notebook page. What seems most important to do and be and feel in the months ahead? What are the responsibilities you need to put down in black and white in order to stop carrying them around in a basket, and instead choose a day to tackle just how to make things happen? What is something that had an immense effect on you in the last year, and is it something you want to promote and make space for in the new year, or is it something you need to pack away for good, and actively heal from?
Each person's list is very personal and different, but I do beseech you to find a quiet corner to shut out all the clamour and ask yourself as many questions as you please. Bring along a journal to pour out your scattered thoughts, if you like. To make space in your own mind for moments of clarity, decision, and planning. Because thinking, dreaming, planning and strategizing, are usually what it takes to live a life you can love, where you really feel like you're living, where you can bring to life those pieces of yourself and your dreams that are most important. It takes time and work, but also rest, and boundaries, and choice.
I commend to you whatever process works best for you to feel that fresh start to the tips of your toes, and the top of your head. Find some quiet, and look for the meaning at the heart of your weary efforts.
I like to choose a word for the year to center upon, instead of my Resolutions List being at the forefront. I do keep lists of things I want to do, accomplish, maintain, let go, etc. But I like to make the start of a new year feel simplified and less cluttered than a demanding list might afford. And so I've enjoyed choosing a Word of the Year in recent years. I posted more about this last year. I won't tell you how to choose your own word. There are lots of tools out there, and lists of words. Not all of them are helpful of course, and it still takes quiet time, sitting and mulling over your inner longings and murmurs, and which string needs tugging this year. What can I gather around, like a fire to light my hope and energy this year?
I'll tell you all about the word I chose in my next post.
In the meantime, I thought I'd share a different sort of list with you today. Many people are compiling a list of resolutions this time of year, and in the last few months I have been thinking about my 30 before 30 list so that I'll have time to accomplish them by the time the big day rolls around. That specific list I may share another day as well, but I found when making that list that two other lists emerged naturally. One was what many call a "Bucket List" - things to do sometime in my life. And the other was of things I'd already done. This, I found to my comfort and inspiration: was the longest list of the three.
And so today, as 2022 nears its end, I'm sharing
22 things I think everyone should do at least once in their life
My two cents of course, take how you will. And all my best wishes for the New Year!
- Travel outside your own country
- Live by yourself
- See the ocean
- Hold a newborn baby
- Take a dance class
- Get certified at something
- Try meditation
- Read a book that you adore
- Witness a fresh snowfall
- Get a massage
- Go to therapy
- Bake bread
- Stand up for someone else
- Go caroling
- Tell a joke from memory
- Play an instrument
- Read aloud to someone you love
- Volunteer
- Take yourself out to dinner
- Ask for something big: a raise, love, help.
- See a migration murmuration
- Complete 30 days of something (anything! But my top recommendation is Yoga with Adriene's daily yoga in January)
What would you add to this list?