Category: New Year Day Special Edition

Looking Forward…

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn 2019, New Year Day Special Edition, Winter at SonnystoneLeave a comment

My Goals are set, but they are not Lofty:  Write, Read, Walk, Travel, Blog, Join, and Play.

I am inspired by this poem by Dana Gioia, Buy his book, 99 Poems, here…   He is Poet Laureate of California — Did you know there was a Poet Laureate of California?  Well, there is and he is it.  His Imagery is Esquisite…

New Year’s
by Dana Gioia

Let other mornings honor the miraculous.
Eternity has festivals enough.
This is the feast of our mortality,
The most mundane and human holiday.

On other days we misinterpret time,
Pretending that we live the present moment.
But can this blur, this smudgy in-between,
This tiny fissure where the future drips

Into the past, this flyspeck we call now
Be our true habitat? The present is
The leaky palm of water that we skim
From the swift, silent river slipping by.

The new year always brings us what we want
Simply by bringing us along—to see
A calendar with every day uncrossed,
A field of snow without a single footprint.

“New Year’s” by Dana Gioia.

 

We’re eating Skippin’ Jenny, which is actually leftover Hoppin’ John, and Casey’s painting the bathroom.  I’m going to (finally) sign up for the 2-week trial of My Heritage.  Casey got me a bath scale — !!A Bath Scale!! — for Christmas and I finally stepped on it this morning.  I haven’t weighed in since last June when the old scale broke down.  Today’s number was distressing, but not surprising, underscoring that good old “walk” intention.

As always, I thank you all for reading this drivel.

Here’s to the New Year 2019!

May it be filled to overflowing with

Peace and Love…

The Perfunctory New Year, New You Post

On By Jo Mayne CaseyIn 2018, New Year Day Special Edition, Winter at SonnystoneLeave a comment

The aroma of hoppin’ john — my stock new-year-day lucky food–is filling the air, warming us on this frigid (10degrees), but sunshiny First Day of 2018.

I’m a little skittish about making Resolutions…  I’ve done it before, but I’m just not a Resolute person.  I have only a passing understanding of Determination or what on earth a Firm Decision would be.  Same way with Goals…  The very word implies Effort and there is a whiff of competition that has never appealed to me.

I reject Bucket List, because I do not have a terminal diagnosis, and I sincerely hope to have done Everything before I get the diagnosis…

But just like the traditional lucky food, and kissing at midnight, I usually make a list on New Year Day.  The List was aimed at Self-Improvement, being healthy, changing my habits… The usual stop smoking, stop drinking, lose weight, join a group, take a class…I Would Become a Better Person!!!  January was always full of hope…  By February, I would be making excuses, and March always saw me in the line of shame to d/c my gym membership.

Why did I spend so much time criticizing myself, always falling short of my expectations.  I set myself up to fail, then beat myself up, feeling undisciplined, even lazy!?  Some of those habits changed, but never because I wrote it down on New Year Day.  Time flew in and changed me.  It works much better that way.

At the ripe old age of 64, I see the Year Ahead much differently.  I look at the Year as an Adventure, Each Day as a New Experience, Every moment present and aware.  So I’ll call it my Adventure List?  My Experience List?  My Learning List?  My Here’s What I Want to Do in 2018 List?

Whatever you want to call it, here it is…
(in no particular order and not necessarily complete)

1. Enjoy Each Moment, no judging

2.  Write

3.  Travel

4.  Spend Time with Family

5.  Learn New Music

6.  Read

7.  Garden

8.  Walk/Hike

9.  Spruce up the House

Asking a lot of myself, aren’t I?  I hope you feel free from self-criticism, too.   You don’t always need to Change yourself, trying to please or fit in.  You Will Be Changed, believe me;  that’s what Life is.  Don’t be so determined to be something.  Open yourself to Just Be.  Enjoy the Journey.
Peace