A new year–the way we name one cycle of the earth’s orbit around the sun.
So the old year comes to a close, and we collect the major events of those 365 days. We review them like a catalog or a library or a photo album. The years do seem to take on personalities, smaller characterizations that pertain to our selves or our circles, a larger Zeitgeist when we attempt to look at the year globally, greater than the sum of our personal experiences.
Then we move into a new set of days. While I’m generally not a fan of the flashy side of the holiday, this is what I do like about New Year’s Eve. When we end one thing, it creates a new beginning. That’s a rather remarkable gift. It’s permission and a challenge. A new year gives us the time and space for new beginnings, to pay attention to things we may have missed, to make something out of nothing.
Last year was not an easy year. 2014 had a lot of heartaches and challenges. Overall, I’m not sad to see it go, though there are moments of grace and beauty that I treasure.
To use a running metaphor, I feel like 2014 was a series of sprints. Professionally and personally, I moved in small, productive bursts, counting the days in between deadlines and holidays.
Last year had a lot of in between days.
In 2015, I’m shifting my focus to goals that may stretch a bit further into the horizon, to longer projects and novels, to seeds planted last year that require still more nurturing to come to fruition.
If 2014 was made up of sprints, 2015 will be a marathon. I hope to move through the new year with better organization and momentum. I think I’m a creative sprinter at heart, so this feels counterintuitive, but we’ll see.
As far as the world and those I love, this is my wish for the new year:
May we treat each other with more kindness in this next circle around the sun. May we cultivate relationships with people to whom we can entrust our hearts and our dreams. May we find ourselves looking into the eyes of someone who truly sees us and believes. At the end of the next 365 days, I hope we are all paying closer attention, and I hope that somehow there is more love in the world.
Happy New Year.