I love New Year’s. I really am not sure if it or July 4 is my favorite holiday. And I’ve blogged a few times about how much I love Independence Day.
For me, they have some things in common. Fireworks. I love fireworks. The other part the Fourth and New Year’s have in common is this idea that it’s a fun day. No drama. No big expectations. Enjoy. Celebrate. Just do what feels good. And “good” for you- sleep, dream, take down the tree, play…
I prefer New Year’s Day to the Eve because I like the BRAND NEW SPARKLY YEAR. On 01-01, when it’s sunny I think how brilliant it looks. On 01-01, when it’s storming, I think how great it is to roar into the new year- blow and wash all that old weary stuff away.
The thing I love most about both days is the spirit of renewal. Independence Day is patriotic, but- for me- there is an undercurrent of personal independence, freedom.
It’s not an undercurrent for New Year’s. It’s front and center. January 1 is the day to start over. New calendar. New ideas of how we want to move ahead.
Even if we forgo resolutions- it is a decision to say “I’m good. I’ve got this. I know myself well enough and accept what I know, that I don’t need to make any resolutions.”
I don’t really make resolutions. Or not the typical “I will lose weight. I will buy a house. I will get a puppy.”
But I definitely go into each year with INTENTION.
I pay attention. I value the opportunity we have. This brand new sparkly year.
I don’t make resolutions, but I do enter the year resolved to live it with a focus or effort towards something different– something that I learned wasn’t working in the previous year(s).
So I enter 2015 resolved:
-To value my feelings as much as I value cognitive thinking. This includes my feelings of joy and freedom, but also the feelings of fear and trepidation. And the physical ones of fatigue, hunger, pain.
-To catch myself when I am trying too hard to figure out the unknowable. And stop.
-To stop doing things that are hollow expectations (e.g.; baking). To do more things that others don’t understand about me, but I love.
-To see life as a river, not a pond (I’ll explain this later).
What about you? Resolutions? Promises? Intentions? Do you like New Year’s?