Daily Sunshine

January 1 – A New Year

The turning of a New Year has a kaleidoscope of meanings for all who witness the fading of one year for the entrance of another.  We look forward to the first of the year with unique perspectives and feelings. For some it means renewal, a new beginning. To one who may have had a challenging year, it could signal the end of hardship and toil.  Some look forward to upcoming events, perhaps the birth of a child, a new job, a move, or an exciting trip. To others it’s simply another day marked in black and white on the calendar. The beauty of New Year’s Day, is you get to drive its meaning and its outcome, regardless of what the rest of the coming year may bring.  

Take a moment to think about what you want this year to look like.  I’m not recommending you sit and write resolutions. For many this time-honored tradition can be too overwhelming and many resolutions are forgotten by the end of the month, if not sooner.  Instead, I recommend taking a slot of time, whether it’s five minutes or fifty-five to jot down your thoughts and feelings as you start yet another New Year. If you are a person who is overwhelmed by the idea of putting pen to paper, keep it simple.  Write a list. What do you want from this year? What are your hopes and expectations? What do you hope to leave behind in 2018 and bring with you into 2019? Keep your thoughts somewhere safe. Perhaps in a new notebook for this purpose, perhaps on a slip of paper in a drawer.  If you prefer the technical route, open a word doc on your computer. You may enjoy returning to this collection of thoughts when the year, with December 31st, 2019, has reached its repose.

Let’s start the New Year with a few things to put you in the mood – a poem, a quote, and a song.

Year’s End by Richard Wilbur

Now winter downs the dying of the year,   
And night is all a settlement of snow;
From the soft street the rooms of houses show   
A gathered light, a shapen atmosphere,   
Like frozen-over lakes whose ice is thin   
And still allows some stirring down within.

I’ve known the wind by water banks to shake
The late leaves down, which frozen where they fell   
And held in ice as dancers in a spell   
Fluttered all winter long into a lake;   
Graved on the dark in gestures of descent,   
They seemed their own most perfect monument.

There was perfection in the death of ferns   
Which laid their fragile cheeks against the stone   
A million years. Great mammoths overthrown   
Composedly have made their long sojourns,   
Like palaces of patience, in the gray
And changeless lands of ice. And at Pompeii

The little dog lay curled and did not rise   
But slept the deeper as the ashes rose
And found the people incomplete, and froze   
The random hands, the loose unready eyes   
Of men expecting yet another sun
To do the shapely thing they had not done.

These sudden ends of time must give us pause.   
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
More time, more time. Barrages of applause   
Come muffled from a buried radio.
The New-year bells are wrangling with the snow.

Quote of the Day:

Make time for what matters.  A relaxed body, a peaceful mind and a nourished heart.

Song of the Day:

Landslide (Orchestra Version Live from Soundstage) by Stevie Nicks


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