Filed under: blessings, entertainment, humor, Parenting, social justice, travel | Tags: blessings, family, Humor, Parenting, travel
Saturday Story Time: New Years Happen
Our baby sitter gently woke us up a little before midnight. She armed us with pots and spoons and sent us out on the dark night to bang away in our Pajama’s. That is my first memory of celebrating the New Year. I have been in New York City, the base of the mountain in Aspen, Colorado, the pier in San Clemente, California and on a boat in the Puget Sound outside of Seattle, Washington.
I have celebrated alone, with family, friends, boy friends and high school kids when my husband was in youth ministry. I have often chosen the East Coast New Year while on the West Coast so I could go to bed before midnight. I have played games, drank too much, watched movies, been out ‘clubbing’ and been home sick.
It does not seem to matter that much how I spend it, it happens anyway. If I stay up, if I party, if I make a resolution or don’t, the New Year comes. It comes when I am ready and when I am not. It comes if I welcome it, or I dread it. It has come every year since I was born and I imagine it will continue long after I am gone.
What about it then is so different? Why do we celebrate a certain day, make it a holiday, wait with anticipation for what it will bring? I am sure there are logical answers, philosophical dissertations and mathematical equations to explain why it is this day that we honor. Life is very daily. It continues to continue, and we often go through the motions of living each day without even knowing what day it is.
Celebrating the New Year is a way to cause all of us to pause on the same day around the world and recognize we are alive. To be present in the present, and actually see it for the gift it is. As human beings, it binds us together in the common reality that life truly is a gift worth celebrating and life does go on. It is not about a country or an individual birthday, it is about the human race managing to survive another three hundred sixty-five days.
New Year’s happen, and this is one woman who is thankful they do. Happy New Year to all, however you choose to celebrate!
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kariskhaos 
I am celebrating it as a single parent like me has every year, sit back and relax with blog writing lol! don’t get me wrong. i welcome it, but it’s good to just go with the flow once in a while you know? 🙂
Comment by andy1076 December 31, 2011 @ 9:23 pmSingle parent or married for years the new years come and go but you sound like you are doing well! Good luck with your blog as you continue to reach out with words!
Comment by Kari January 2, 2012 @ 9:08 pm