A New and Shiny Year
This new year feels so clean and shiny and new, like a bullet journal before it’s filled with all of my hastily jotted down notes and cross-outs. Which inevitably makes me think about Melissa back in January of 2020. That foolish woman who had no clue how the next 11 months would unfold. It makes you squint at 2021, wondering its intentions. Will this year mostly be a continuation of 2020 with only the change of a single numeral? Or will we get our vaccine and return to life in the outside world? Only future me knows.
I’m choosing to be hopeful with a side of realism?
Things I’m carrying with me into this new year: Hard limits and firm boundaries (with my time, with my safety, with my newfound ability to say “no”). Reading with my guinea pig while working on Josh to see my vision of a house full of guinea pigs. Not overscheduling myself and being okay with things being okay. Keeping my friends and family close (at least, via Zoom and text).
New things we’re doing: Working my way through my guilt TBR. (These are purchased TBR books that I keep passing over because library holds come in, even though I want to read these purchased TBRs more.) Playing chess. Doing more crosswords. Not eating as if the pandemic means there are zero calories in my food.
2020 caught me off-guard. I’m going into 2021 looking straight ahead and side-to-side. Checking my rear-view mirror. Driving forward, carefully and fully masked.
What are you bringing with you into the new year?
4 comments
I feel like I have yet to grok the arrival of a new year: I got sick the day after Christmas, and while I am improving, the associated fatigue has made it enough of a challenge to keep up with the necessities of life (like work and children). UGH
Hard limits and firm boundaries are good! I wish you well with them. 🙂
Well, after yesterday, the year probably feels a little less new and shiny, I’m betting. Except that there is a new and shiny start on 20 Jan, and I am sure that will lift a burden or fear that you’ve been feeling for four years or more.
I think hopeful with a side of realism is very sensible. I’m expecting 2021 to be similar (in NZ) to 2020. No international travel, but hopefully a light at the end of the tunnel.
I also have a guilt TBR list (on my kindle app), which I recently decided to start reading. I’ve been held hostage by the library holds coming due too! I’m all for doing crosswords. We have a digital newspaper subscription, so I print all the crosswords and carry them in my bag, so when we are out for coffee or lunch, we’ll often do a crossword (just finished one from 1 December!) .
As for 2021, I’m hoping this year I will be more thoughtful about blogging, connections with friends and family, and get some projects done. A lot of last year was treading water, tied up with elder care issues, pandemic fears, etc. So yes, it does feel new and shiny to me too. And that’s a lovely feeling.
Aaaaaaarrrrgghhhhhhhhh. My sense of a new and shiny year has been shaken. Also, all I could think was, “oh no, Mel several hours later is going to be gobsmacked.” I did like Stephen Colbert’s take that this is 2020’s bonus tracks, and not necessarily a harbinger for a worse year.
Going back in time, I have many similar goals– boundaries, self care, follow through on goals… Prioritizing some older TBRs, keep up on a modified bullet journal because it really does help me track my goals and remember stuff. Maybe after January 2021 will settle down. Like, sunrise January 21st. Ha.
Haha, Colbert called it bonus tracks? I love that. It didn’t feel like a shiny new year to me because a) it’s arbitrary and b) my family got Covid right after Christmas. It was mild, no big deal for us, although I had the worst symptoms out of the four. All better’ish now. Keeping myself slowed down so that I don’t have a resurgence of symptoms is the hard part. And I can’t smell or taste, which is annoying.
As far as what I’m bringing? Staying the course on following masking and distancing (we don’t know how we got it) and kind of happy that we now have some level of immunity. Juggling school, work, trainings and yada yada yada…