Happy New Year?
Are you a person who likes New Year’s Day? I, traditionally, am not. As a kid, we always went to visit my grandparents, whom I loved, but the day was spent watching football, which I don’t love even now as an adult and definitely didn’t understand as a kid. My granny spent the morning making a big lunch with traditional southern dishes that are supposed to bring luck and abundance in the new year, specifically black-eyed peas and collard greens. Not the most appetizing to me as a kid, or really even now, though I can appreciate some well-seasoned and sautéed greens when they are served to me.
Then there’s the issue of resolutions. As I grew into a teen and a young adult, I became more aware of this tradition, and like many people would set resolutions around losing weight, exercising, eating more healthfully, etc. None of which ever lasted very long. So, this knowledge that I would surely once again fail to hold myself accountable to my goals in addition to football and unappealing food had me hating on New Year’s Day for many years. Since that time, I have grown and learned some things about myself and also about how to make my own traditions that I enjoy with my family, so I’m going to share some of the things that make my new year more joyful and inspiring.
Being in the season of life that involves parenting a young child, my husband and I don’t really go out for a glitzy New Year’s Eve celebration. To be honest, we weren’t glitzy people even before becoming parents, and we both hate crowds, so staying in for New Year’s isn’t a new thing for us. This year after kiddo went to bed, we made a decidedly un-fancy charcuterie platter and munched on it while playing board games. We did pop a champagne cork as well.
Instead of lunch being the important meal on New Year’s Day, for the past several years we have heavily invested in New Year’s breakfast. Sometimes it has been with extended family and sometimes just with the 3 of us, but we always try to make something special and delicious to kick of a new year. Other than that, we keep it pretty low-key and simple, and we may add traditions as our little one gets older, but for now simple is how we like it.
I still don’t really do resolutions, but I have been playing with a concept that has become widespread around the internet and social media but that I learned about on Gretchen Rubin’s podcast, Happier, that she does with her sister, Elizabeth Craft. I don’t know if they made this up themselves or whether it has its origins elsewhere, but they are big proponents of choosing a theme or word of the year, rather than making resolutions. I love this idea because it feels less restrictive and more natural to me to work on living in alignment with a word or theme rather than trying to live up to a concrete resolution. Choosing and living by a word of the year is more expansive and process-oriented than setting a resolution that feels more pass/fail. Can one ever really say they’ve mastered the concept of joy or calm? No, it’s just a signpost we erect to point us toward the lives we want to live.
I’ve decided that this year my word will be SELF-EXPRESSION. There are various ways I want to express myself in both my professional and personal life this year. One of which is this very blog. I already have topics picked out for each week of the year, and I really want to be committed to sharing something here every week. Expressing that intention to you is one way I’m building in some accountability for myself that will hopefully keep me sticking to my goal. You can help by commenting below or via private message or email so I know you’re seeing what I’m putting out here! Thanks in advance for participating in the conversations I hope we will have this year. If you’re not already, come follow me on Instagram and share with me what your word of the year is. I’d love to see what you come up with! And if you’re feeling like you are already behind because the year has already started, relax! I like to think of the whole month of January as preparation for the year because, honestly, who has time to do stuff like that in December?! I’m going to be sharing some suggestions for other yearly intentions throughout the rest of the month, so maybe you’ll find something that resonates with you.
Until next week, take good care of yourself and happy 2020!
Meghan