New Year’s Eve…I am sitting at my desk and I am thinking back over the year that was, for me, a holding place, a place left at the starting blocks, a year when I never really got going properly.
I KNOW I am not alone in this feeling.
Several things happened today that really lifted my spirits.
- I caught up with my accounts, as in, up to TODAY. This was a major big deal as I had put them off for a whole year and anyone who knows me at all knows that this is not how I usually operate. “Procrastinate” had become my middle name.
- I did a “What’s App” video call with an old friend who is going through one of those life defining moments and, hopefully, I comforted her by just being there. I have been in this place so often in my life and giving that time back to others is a sacred privilege.
- There was a bottle of real Taittinger Champagne in the fridge and I decided that this evening was the “now or never” moment to open it. We have had this bottle for far too long. It was given to one of us for a “big” birthday or at the end of a concert or on some such other occasion and we had been hanging onto it “for a special occasion”. You know the drill. What is a special occasion? What about life itself? There was every chance in the world that this bottle of champagne was going to be off, past its best, a Champagne Crime. So, nothing for it!!!
The cork resisted nicely and then opened with a healthy pop that took me back to the start of so many orchestral tours- back in the days when a group of us could meet early at the airport, even if it was 5 in the morning, and start as we meant to go on with Champagne and Smoked Salmon Sandwiches in the “after security check in” waiting room. Yes, I am THAT old.
Sorry…I digress. But, New Year’s Eve is about glancing in the rearview mirror. It is very natural to think back over what has been. Perhaps as we get older that very tendency can become like a drug in itself. I have seen it in others and I am going to fight it with everything I have.
This is not to say that I am planning to go all gung-ho tomorrow making resolutions and then beat myself up for 4 days before collapsing gratefully back onto the sofa. No, no, no. Get a grip.
The middle way.
Today.
Today’s joys, sorrows, unexpected laughs, unforeseen lows.
Roll with it.
Live every moment of it.
As they say, this too shall pass, and all too soon. The best thing about getting older is I start to feel I can tell the people that I love, “I love you!”, right to their faces.
My unexpected happy place today was finding that the champagne still had LOTS of bubbles. The Ritz crackers, although a bit broken, still brought happy memories of my childhood. The tartan blanket I wrap around my legs at my desk made a Happy New Year background.
I am just so lucky.
I hope your New Year is blessed.
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Quotidian 