A Book of Magic for New Years…
Should auld acquaintance be forgot…
In 6 hours, we’ll ring in a New Year. Here, anyway. In Australia, it’s already New Year’s Day. I won’t be making any resolutions. Again.
Did you know resolution makers are the minority?
Statistica says 40% of people make New Year resolutions. I’m not one of them. The most common resolutions, they say, are to save money or lose weight. Which isn’t surprising, except only 8% of people keep those resolutions.
Too often, resolutions set us up to fail…
Psychology Today says people often start a New Year by taking stock of where they are. Except, human nature being what it is, we often turn “taking stock” into fault-finding. Which then turns into shame. Problem is, shame has a negative effect on outcome so — in essence — we set ourselves up to fail.
I don’t want to start a New Year that way…
I don’t want to start 2019 with my jaw clenched in determination that this, this will be the year I will be richer or skinnier. No, I want to greet the New Year with my arms full of the joy of simply being alive.
A book of magic for New Years!
A lot of people would have loved to be able to celebrate one more Christmas, one more New Year. But they didn’t get to. And, by sheer luck of fate, we do. So what, then, shall we do with that?
I shall write a book of magic!
On January 1, I’ll sit down with a notebook and write as many highlights of 2018 as I can remember. Not in order, because that’s not how memory works. Instead, they’ll be a wonderful jumble across months and seasons.
— All the moments that make me smile just to remember them…
— The moments I was insanely proud, even just for a minute...
— The new things I tried, even if I sucked at them. Because I tried!
— The things that made me laugh until I could hardly breathe…
— The things I was insanely grateful for…
I shall write until I simply cannot write another word. Then I’ll close the book.
Then, I’ll tuck the book away for the magic to begin…
All year, the book will wait. But, some part of my mind will remember that it’s there. All year, I hope I’ll catch myself thinking — that’s one for the book!
When I’m afraid to try something new, the thought of writing that I did it — maybe that will fuel me. I hope it will. If it succeeds more than 8% of the time, it’s already a bigger win that resolutions ever were.
Most of all, I think knowing the book is there, waiting, will make me pay attention to the good moments just a little more. Which reminds me, a little, of the advice Kurt Vonnegut liked to give…
One of the things [Uncle Alex] found objectionable about human beings was that they so rarely noticed when they were happy. He himself did his best to acknowledge it when times were sweet. We could be drinking lemonade in the shade of an apple tree in the summertime, and Uncle Alex would interrupt the conversation to say, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”
So I hope you will do the same for the rest of your lives. When things are going sweetly and peacefully, please pause a moment, and say out loud, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”
Will you join me?
I hope you’ll start a book of magic, too. But even if you don’t, I’d love if you’d share one wonderful memory from the last year. It would be so amazing to scroll down and find a list of beautiful moments of the last year.
I can’t think of a nicer thing to read on New Year’s Day than happy memories of people I’ve grown to know and admire. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to Denise Garratt, Dennett, Linda A Robinson, PhD, Lori McCray, White Feather, Kay Bolden, James Finn, alto, Rick Gibbins, Gail Boenning, Dan Moore, Ayodeji Awosika, Jeffrey Field, Ann Litts and all the rest of the friends I’ve made here.
