Tuesday, January 1, 2013

New Year's Day 2013 - what are those birds singing about, I wonder?

2013 begins today.  I woke up and it was just getting light, but I knew right away... this is the first day of the new year.  I didn't make any resolutions, but the birds outside my window are sure chattering away and singing about something!  I wonder if birds feel the difference... their songs certainly seem joyous today! 
I watched this little year-in-review video and was disappointed.  It started okay, but then the images flashed by so fast, it was impossible to discern the event, the person, or what any of it might mean.  I look back on my year and see that there was a lot to it.  I mean, a lot of firsts, a lot of changes, a lot of learning, a lot of doing... I like that.  That's what I hope this year will be like too. 
I was thinking about the why of it all last night.  Seated on the couch in my living room, I can look out on the horizon of the small town below, and several others beyond and see some of the most gorgeous sky-illuminators you could wish for.  So as the first minutes of 2013 ticked by, I watched and crocheted in between the big colorful ones, and thought about my non-reflections and what makes people go so crazy about celebrating the new year.  It doesn't matter which new year, in terms of culture or calendar;  whatever your affiliations are, the idea of a new year is something special - even sacred.  Yet, it's just a moment passing! From one moment to another, it's suddenly something completely new!  I had to make myself go over it very carefully, until the real sense of the why of it made real sense to me!  We are marking time, trying to hold onto it, trying to measure ourselves and track our 'progress' by putting time into 365-day categories that we can look back on and look forward to... we are keeping our history in order and it's totally understandable, even impressive!  There are lots of theories and beliefs as to how it got thought up in the first place, and each one is remarkable in itself. 
And on a personal level, I feel happy remembering how we spent NYE; it was one of the nicest ones I've spent.  It had a delicious homeyness that gave it the perfect NYE atmosphere.   
So now, it really is 2013!  Better get started and see what's going on right from the beginning.  Happy New Year to all!