Hello, beloved friends! Happy New Year!
What a nice thing it is to wish people a happy new year when mostly people’s resolutions are not “be happy”. I mean they are usually “be better”, but we don’t say Better New Year! Perhaps we should— more realistic— but also I suppose not as celebratory or festive. Are you still feeling festive?
For me: nope! Not a drop of festivity remains in my veins! I won it back from the dark for three days over Christmas, in which time we watched The Sound Of Music, wore paper crowns, played Charades, etc, in a sort of gorgeous chosen-family semi-serious parody of a Real Family Christmas; and again on New Year’s Eve, where we hosted our annual Not Going Out party and burned our dreams in the fire.
If you have not been here for previous New Years: every year we host a variety of friends and acquaintances who, for whatever reason, are Not Going Out. Elaborate canapés; a huge Le Creuset of miso mushroom ragu; sliced red pepper and Kate’s Pringle Dip: the menu basically varies, but the vibe is the same, i.e., come over, drink champagne, eat things, and at midnight we will burn eleven of our twelve resolutions in the fire. Actually they are not resolutions: they are wishes or dreams or ideas. You write down twelve things that you think would make your life nicer in the coming year, fold each one up small, and take turns to blind toss your papers into the flames until you’re only holding one. That one is your mission. The rest belong to the universe to handle. The rest have gone up in smoke. You have to simply focus your gaze on your paper, whatever it is, and the rest will follow.
I usually write, like, ten fun ones and two serious ones, and inevitably the fire gives me the serious ones. This is because the universe knows I need no encouragement to do things that are fun. I’m still working on mine from last year and two years ago, can you believe? But that is because they amount to the same thing, i.e. write my stupid book, which is taking forever because life is so endless. Stuff just keeps on happening! You have to just make the best of it! You have to live where the house lands on you!
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