Cheers to the New Year
New Year’s Eve.
It’s 9 p.m. and I’m on my couch at home with my slippers on and the distant sound of fireworks crackling somewhere in the neighborhood while Natalie’s music thumps overhead. Last year at this time I was celebrating New Year’s Eve in New York City with friends. At the stroke of midnight, we ran through Central Park with hundreds of other people while the most brilliant fireworks exploded in the sky, the booms echoing eerily off the skyscrapers around us and the energy of a thousand souls pushed our feet forward. It looks a little different this year but that’s OK. Nat and I took a drive at sunset, chasing cotton candy pink clouds and reminiscing about some of the familiar places we passed. Then we ordered a pizza when we got home and baked a chocolate cake. I might not even stay up until midnight and if I do, it will probably be unintentional.
I’ve been thinking about resolutions and decided I’ll definitely have a reading goal because book goals are always good goals.
Gretchen Rubin, the New York Times bestselling author, speaker and podcaster, has started a challenge called Read 25 in ‘25, which is the very achievable goal of reading 25 minutes a day, every day. I like it, and I am going to join in. Sometimes just picking up a book and getting started is the hardest part and then next thing I know, 25 minutes turns into 45.
So, let’s do less mindless scrolling and more reading this year!
In all the chaos and heartbreak of life, books are such a little treat, a magic carpet that whisks us away from our own world and into the worlds of others. I meet people, become immersed into their lives, learn things, hear their secrets and fears and triumphs and tragedies. Like other forms of art, words have the ability to feed and heal the soul.
My sister and I both bought Elizabeth Strout’s latest book – Tell Me Everything – for each other for Christmas so we’re both reading it at the same time. I always find her books to be like a comfortable sweater on a cold day or a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup. I get so absorbed into the story, I feel like I’m there, in that little town in Maine with all of its idiosyncratic characters. I hate to leave her little world and enter back into mine.
It’s a drizzly, grey end of December day, perfect for snuggling up on the couch with my very good dog and a blanket and Strout.
In addition to my reading goal, I have others because I can never resist making goals for the New Year, even small, silly ones. It’s just fun and it always feels like the new year is a blank slate, so fresh and hopeful and just waiting to be filled with wonderful things.
I want to take fun trips and visit new places and eat good food and cook in the kitchen and make more good memories. South Dakota is at the top of the list of places to go this year and I can’t wait. I want to spend time with the people I love. Natalie graduates this year and we’re planning a trip to celebrate this milestone.
I want to go to concerts and visit museums. My friend Ann and I have also started filling up a little glass olive jar with slips of paper and on the paper are things we want to do and adventures we want to take. Every day we text each other with a new idea – “add that to the jar!” We say. There is everything in the jar, from sipping wine at a new wine shop to hosting a book swap party to biking across Cuba and visiting a historic leper colony museum in Louisiana.
I want to write more and hike more. I sort of abandoned both this year but my heart and soul need my words and wild places. I told Ann I was going to write about our jar and its adventures as we complete them and then I’m going to post them here even though I sometimes cringe at my words.
I want to study Botany. I love native plants and I want to learn more. I want to spend less time frittering away hours on nothing and make the most of the time I have.
So, that’s what I want for 2025. More wonder, more joy, more purposeful experiences and love and healing and small connections.
Cheers!
