New year's

I remember being much more humbled by the change of the year than I am now. I remember young adult years, when anxiety about New Year’s Eve plans began long before Christmas, and when the night itself was marked by resolutions and anticipation of a kiss at midnight. I remember noon shots of whiskey followed by frenzied dashes into frigid Lake Michigan. I recall the thoughts and feelings which weighed heavier on the last night of every passing year and then the hopes which rose so easily – so effortlessly – in the crisp air of each News’ Year Day.
Is it but age that tempers that excitement? I see how my children, now twelve and ten, approach that night, with wonder and awe, as if they will experience something magical at midnight, when one year folds into another.
It’s just another night, of course. The sun sets, Orion and his companion winter constellations swing across the ink black sky and then a light seeps like a weak stain, spreading across the eastern horizon.
Perhaps after so many years and so many nights, it is easy to take this momentous occasion for granted. Just another night. Just another morning.
But what magic!
What a gift it is, the bright stain creeping across the sky, the sun rising and the earth awakening again. It’s the stuff of mythology - of our deepest dreams and oldest tales: life overcoming death at its most simple.
Imagine our ancestors, before electricity. How they must have been heartened by the return of the sun and by the small lengthening of daylight each morning brought with it. Imagine primitive man before harnessing fire. How much relief they must have felt each morning.
In truth, there are some mornings now I awake with apprehension, stressed about chores before me, or worried about something that had felt so damned important during the dark of night.
Perhaps we need a News Years Eve and a New Year’s Day to sweep those worries and fears away, to remind us there is something much more elemental – and much more important – at work.
Whether you believe in a deity or not, you have to admit that the cosmological mechanics which bring about each new morning and place you and I together, where ever we may be, at dawn to witness the birth of a new day are quite near miraculous. Thank god, thank gravity, thank the big bang or whatever else you want. But stop for a moment and remind yourself: it is something for which to be grateful.
Happy new year.

Comments

[becky spice]

happy new year, honey