Let's Not Try...

Happy New Year!

Have you put away the holiday decorations yet? Around here, there’s always at least one thing that gets forgotten in the clean-up that ends up spending the entire year by its lonesome self on a shelf inside the coat closet. This year, there were two items overlooked by Mr. Fastidious (he was in charge this year, and much more thorough than I am). First, I noticed my neighbor’s door wreath as I looked through the circle of my own. Then, I pondered how long both wreaths might remain on display as I savored a piece of chocolate I’d chosen from a wicker Santa bowl, still on my dining room table. Not bad, I’d say, considering the number of remnants we’re likely to find around the yard after an Easter Egg Hunt.

Honestly, I’m not a whip-cracker.  See, I’ve been relegated to the proverbial ‘observation deck’ since mid-December when I discovered coffee doesn’t exactly enable me to leap tall buildings, as evidenced that fateful morning I tripped over a measly step stool and broke my shoulder. They should have named me Grace. Nevertheless, this new and thankfully temporary vantage point has afforded an extraordinary perspective on holiday celebrations.

Did you tear up the town or block out the sound of New Year celebrations? I don’t think I’ve stayed up until midnight since Y2K. We were, however, awakened not long after the Old Pueblo’s first annual “Taco Drop” this year by one of our dogs barking at her own reflection in a window through which fireworks would have no doubt bedazzled her a couple of hours earlier.

Most years, I look forward to local and national recaps of the preceding year as they invariably jog some potent memory wherein the best creative juices flow.  Curiously, there seems an apparent reluctance or ambivalence in recall, for very few sources deem last year at all notable,  focusing instead on a decade of years already reviewed after each one ended. I, for one, was paying attention.

For instance, something made an historic landing on the far side of the moon (Hint: it wasn’t Pink Floyd).  A single infamous summer made headlines for the 50^th time. A few refreshing new trends have emerged in the discarding of live/cut Christmas trees. One is the placement of them, devoid of tinsel, lights, and ornaments, of course, in lakes and waterways, providing shelter for young marine life. The other, an original form of repurposing by a veteran and true American Sunbeam, (and of special interest to me of late - ha!) is the creation of handcrafted canes and walking sticks.

I didn’t get around to making plans for the New Year before I was sidelined (so to speak), but I have a list of writing projects waiting patiently in the wings for my most anxious return. How about you? Did you make any resolutions you’d be willing to shake on?

Throughout history, handshakes generally acknowledged mutual agreement to a promise or a deal or perhaps greeting a new friend. Shakespeare apparently had yet another reason in mind when he wrote (Iliad) in reference to the settlement of a conflict “Let’s not try to kill each other” Clever placement of words, wouldn’t you say?

Happy Writing!

This time I mean it!

Have you ever made a resolution you just couldn’t keep? If hands were raised, I’m with ya! We mean well, but for one reason (and there’s always a justifiable reason, of course) or another, we just can’t see it through. Perhaps it was made on dare, not practical, wistful to the point of being ridiculous, or maybe, just maybe, it was simply too tough to do. 

Have you ever made the same resolution more than once? This time, I mean it! Only to beat yourself up a few months later when, once again, you couldn’t make it happen?  Yep, been there.  And it’s exactly why I quit making resolutions years ago.

However, as I scan the skies with wary eyes a winter storm descends; dusting peaks and drenching streets, the desert floor is hushed, I wonder if so too, are all the festivities planned for the annual Taco Drop? I hear the weather isn’t optimal for the Waterford Crystal Drop in the east either.  Can we actually celebrate the New Year without dropping something? Will tomorrow never come unless we celebrate?  Ha!

Tomorrow will come and life will go on, no matter the manner or amount of broken resolutions, or all the anxieties brought on by the business of living busy. If you find yourself thinking how fast the year flew, you’re not alone. But did you smell the roses the last time they bloomed? 

If I were to make another resolution it would be to employ a conscious effort to slow down enough to smell the rain before it slaps the desert floor; to feel it on my face and save myself the time and space to write my dreams.  How about you?

Wishing all a Happy New Year!