What about this new year? Do you feel a renewed sense of purpose at the beginning of a new year? Do you feel hope? Do you feel disappointment? Are there some old thoughts or prejudices that should be jettisoned? Do you think, “Oh boy, I have another chance to reshape a part of myself with which I am not 100% happy?”
How about New Year’s resolutions? Do you make them? Do you keep them? I’ve heard people say, “I don’t make New Years’ resolutions, because I just break them.” Perhaps that’s true, and perhaps some of them are not realistic. But – if they have a good purpose, aren’t you better off for having done them for whatever time you did keep them? Sometimes I make resolutions, and sometimes I don’t. I have made one so far, which has three parts to it. Will I fail? I don’t know, but I will certainly try to maintain it. It’s like being on a diet and breaking it, then giving in to old habits. You don’t have to do that, you can just revert to it again the next day.
The above is looking ahead. Now, let’s take a look back. In one of my Christmas blogs, I told you about our custom of setting out our Christmas shoe boxes again on New Year’s Eve. Now to New Year’s Day: Irish superstitions abounded in our household in the old days. I don’t know if that is where the following came from or not. The saying was that whatever you did on New Year's Day would set the pattern for what you did all year. So, we did the necessary work we had to do to be clean, warm, fed and clothed. Then we crowded in as many things as we could that were fun to do. We were keen on setting that part of the saying in motion.
In my own household, I pretty much did the same, doing what needed to be done, then rest, relax, play games, call someone I hadn’t talked to in a while,doing whatever appealed at the time. After my children left home, whenever else I may have talked to them, I made a point of calling them on the phone on New Year’s Day. So that is one of the things I will be doing later today.
What about today? I cooked food yesterday that is more than enough for dinner, so I won’t need to cook much, and it’s too cold to go out just for fun, for this person. However, if I want the light bulb replaced in my dining area, I will need to go out and buy more, but may put it off another day or so. There are four of these flood lights in that area, and one of the bulbs went out about Christmas. Harold changed it for me after they got here. Maintenance does it, but with the extra work on the icy/snowy street and walks, I figured it would be several days before he got to it. Usually, when one of these bulbs goes out, the others follow suit, with maybe a week or two in between. They are high enough that I can’t begin to reach them with my two-step ladder.
I don’t keep a lot of these bulbs on hand, because of the limited storage space.I thought I had two of them, but if so it is eluding me. As luck would have it, the second light went out about a half hour after Barbara and Harold left.
Let’s hope 2010 will be a better year than 2009 for everyone. One of the things I would like to see is a lessening of the kind of opinion emails I get by the dozens, which are presented as fact. Many are full of distortions, sometimes outright lies, which generates, or perpetuates angry and bitter feelings,may and sometimes does, lead to improper conclusions or actions.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to any and all who may read this.
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