Happy New Year

Wishing you all a Happy New Year as 2011 dawns. It is amazing just how fast the year has disappeared on us. Here we are again, at the beginning of another. Yesterday I had to say "this coming year..." and suddenly, after one night, I can now say "this year..."

I must admit to being somewhat at a loss as to what all the fuss is about with New Years. I've never really 'got it.' There's something about staying up late for the sole purpose of saying "Happy New Years" that really does not float my boat. I like bed. I love sleep. I do not like 'having' to stay up. Even in my teens and early 20s I didn't like New Years. I was quite happy to do all-nighters from time to time, but usually it would be on spontaneous occassions when I just happened to be out with friends and we decided to do some mission or other over night! Having to stay up for the sake of it, that's another story.

I think my dislike of New Years has a lot to do with disliking the noise. I am a light sleeper and the bain of my life is that I find it nearly impossible to sleep with music going - bass particularly will drive me up the wall. Even our incredibly quiet, secluded neighbourhood here (which has had all of 1 or 2 parties throughout the 9 months we've lived here) had several lots of music and partying going last night. Boyo and I headed to bed. We were probably asleep by 1am, after most of the noise started to die down (thank God!). I was up at 6am. Life with a baby is somewhat different from the carefree existence of my single days. Then, if I did stay up late or till dawn even, I could head back to bed for a few hours sleep. This so does not happen now. Munchkin will be up, whether I want him to be or not. I did get a nap this afternoon at least.

I have also worked out another reason why I've never really liked New Years much. It has to do with the whole New Year's Resolution thing that we seem to have going. People would ask me, "so what do you want to do this year?" and of course on the 1st of January, I would have absolutely NO idea. I would feel pushed, propelled towards a future for which I was not ready. I hadn't finished with last year, people, so do we really have to start a new one just yet? Can't I keep the old one for another month or so? It needs a bit of tidying up and I still feel rather attached to it. After I worked out that I didn't feel prepared for New Years, I did start to feel a bit better about it. I am able to remind myself that it is just a day. We humans like to keep track of time, and this is one way we do it. We like to make plans, and New Years provides an ideal moment in time for us to do so. But that doesn't mean I have to be all excited about it. So I haven't finished with last year yet. Well, I can still mull over it for as long as I want to, really. I can write down the good bits and the bad bits, and finish off things that are as yet unfinished. I don't need to have some amazing list of resolutions for the year ahead. It sounds like people hardly ever fulfill them anyway. I'm better off sticking with my recent regime of writing down dreams and goals during the year and ticking them off/moving them around whenever I feel like reviewing during the year.

My year starts in February. This is what I have worked out. Invariably it seems that things happen in February. This shouldn't really be a surprise to me. After all, schools start in February. Most businesses in NZ seem to have some kind of a 'down time' in January while people are on summer holidays. So February it is. This is a good thing really. It means I get a whole month to adjust to the fact that we are in a new year. I get a month to say goodbye to 2010 and a month to say hello to 2011. Good. So now it doesn't feel like I'm being rushed into another year.

And on that note, I wish you a Happy New Year. Who knows what lies ahead of us? I hope for good health, happy times, prosperity and strong relationships. But mostly I hope that I live a year I can be proud of, a year in which I live more for others and less for myself, in which I find more of God in the daily chores of living, a year in which I can laugh and dream and plan with gratitude for all the good things, and have the support, comfort and love I need for all the not-so-good.

Amy
Saturday, 1st January, 2011