Auld.

Our New Year’s Spread

I have been wondering about New Year’s. Auld lang syne. “Times long past,” as the saying goes. It is a fantastic time of year. Out with what has passed and in with the new. It has struck me how many people are looking forward to 2020.

So many are ready to be done with 2019. Why? I didn’t seem to get it until the clock stuck twelve.

There may have been successes and trials last year. But the more people I’ve spoken to seem to refer to the New Year as a something to be traversed. Something leapt over or passed through. How to explain it? Like leaving one shore to land on another. Not bad. Sunny days, wavy days. Days where you didn’t think you’d make it between shores. Well, at last you have.

That is what I suppose I mean. The more people I’ve heard from, friends and family, they all seem ready to be done with the waves and waters of 2019. They all seem ready for what is to come.

This point got me thinking: What is it about a new year that is so appealing? The only real new beginning is on the calendar, right? Fresh pages and numbers for us to tack to-do’s and appointments to. Time continues its daily flow. We move ahead. We affix a new number to our daily events: 2020. The New Year is just a way for us to make sense of things, isn’t it?

Could it be more than that?

Now let me be clear. I am in no way opposed to the concept of beginning again or starting fresh. Even we have exciting plans for 2020. But it’s more than numbers on a page. It is freeing leaving the old behind and taking up the new. Images of casting off old garments comes to mind. You throw out your entire wardrobe and start fresh. That’s not a bad idea either . . .

I return to my point. It wasn’t until the midnight hour that I felt it. Felt the New Year creeping up as it had been all year. Only now in the minutes before the gong was it more tangible.

“Happy New Year!”

I have to admit I finally got it.

Someone recently said that as we get older the thought of starting again is more appealing. That having a fresh New Year is liberating. I get that. I think it took the magic of the midnight hour to make me see their point. Fireworks banging and sounding in the distance. Cool air all around. Neighbourhood folk calling “Happy New Year!” out into the fresh dark of 2020. It all simply came together for me.

Sure everyone’s journey this last year has been different. Mine didn’t leave me aching to be done with 2019. It was a blessed year. A good year. I suppose other people’s reflections got me reflecting on new beginnings. And I am grateful for it. I intend to make the most of this new year.

I guess as I get older I wonder about these kind of things. And landmark events tend to do that. Birthdays, New Year and the like. Whatever it is there is plenty of time to figure it out in 2020.

Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year.

You made it, you’ve landed.

Don’t be afraid to look back at the waves that bore you here. But also don’t forget to enjoy the shore before you. Welcome to 2020.