HOW TO FACE THE NEW YEAR

 

First

I am so happy that  V. R. Barkowski is back.  Go visit her new site!
https://vrbarkowski.wordpress.com/

THE FUTURE

In the days when the world begins to bleach and shrivel,

         and the sun is blotched with death.

    Terrorist, Patriot, Communist, and Individualist,

they'll

         all be a little dirt lodged deep in the granite

              wrinkles of this globe's ravaged countenance.

    But until then, we have a New Year to face ...  

No one knows what the New Year will hold for us. 

The only certainty is that at one point we will weep in it ...

but we will also laugh with unexpected happiness as well.

But as wishes go for the New Year, there are none better than those I read by Neil Gaiman from years past:

 Neil writes:

A decade ago, I wrote:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

And almost half a decade ago I said,

...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it's this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

***

In my latest chapter of LOVE IN THE TIME OF THE UNDEAD:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/118593613/Love-in-the-Time-of-the-Undead-chapter-Eight

Victor remembers that his mother once told him:

 “Not  one  day in anyone's life is an uneventful   day,  no   day without profound meaning,
no matter how predictable it might seem.

Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world

that the great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in this momentous affair
you call the present.”

On the 3rd January 1892 JRR Tolkien was born 

in Bloemfontein, South Africa.  

To celebrate this event, on this day each year  

Tolkien fans around the world are invited to raise a glass and toast the birthday of this much loved author. 

The toast is "The Professor".  

For those unfamiliar with British toast-drinking ceremonies:  

To make the Birthday Toast, you stand, raise a glass of your choice of drink (not necessarily alcoholic),  

and say the words 'The Professor' before taking a sip (or swig, if that's more appropriate for your drink).

Sit and enjoy the rest of your drink.

—information and instructions taken from the website of The Tolkien Society