Goodbye Good Old Year

And it is here, eventually:The end of the year.

Once Christmas and S.Stephen’s day have passed,here it start the countdown to New Year’s Eve.Food,sparkly outfits,fireworks,hairdresser’s appointment booked straight after Halloween.Interminable queue at the local nail bar where you are conveniently offered a bubbly glass of something so to not notice the smudged polish on your pinky that,costed you a little fortune and ,with some luck it won’t be chipped before the your big party.
Don’t get me wrong I like New Year’s Eve and I like the idea of the celebrations.I like the festive atmosphere or,may be,I just like the excuse to party?!Whatever, that is not really relevant.I like to dress up,stay up late,dancing, why not,and also indulging myself with some well prepared cosmopolitan followed by nice food and may be some champagne,even if I am not mad about sparkling wines.I like the happy spirit all around,the carefree state of mind everybody approaches the last day of the year.What I don’t like is the rush and the “I must do something,go somewhere and have fun”mentality.Fun is a state of mind and you can have it everywere.Fun is not given by the number but by the quality of people you are with.A nice dress can be worn even to stay at home,after all it is to please our own eyes in first.Compliments from the partner and third parties are always welcome of course, but not essential.

It is the last day of the year,not the last day ever!It is not like that if you don’t take advantage of this night your chances are gone.Humanity and the world as we know it will still be there tomorrow.It is the end of an “era”with its good and bad.Tomorrow an new one will start,with its good an bad.

New year’s resolution are an other thing I am not mad about.Accomplice also the fact that I have never been good at them.During my teen years, new year resolutions were mandatory and they were always about dieting and having a healthier lifestyle.Unnecessary to say that they were also always failed.It came the days when I just gave up:what was the point.I wouldn’t have stack with it anyway.Once I reached full adulthood,mentally,I discovered I was pretty happy with my weight and my health too(improvement are always possible of course but,we have to live as well right?!).No need of new year’s resolutions. Then it came the days when I realised that, may be, new year’s resolutions could be not only related to get rid of the totally disproportionate amount of food I had during the Christmas holidays.They could be more values and morality related.They could be make me a better person,more focus,more disciplined.

Eventually I reached those days when I was mentally fully adult but also slightly wiser.I started to question myself: “did I need a new year to do that?Shouldn’t being a better person be the aim of my personal development anyway?”. Once again no need for setting new year’s resolutions. I can honestly say that,definitely,new year’s resolutions have never really been my thing.Beside,thinking more deeply, it is also like to admit I have been “crap”in the past year and I kind of needing to make amend.A bit extreme,I admit it,but it is just to make my point:We don’t need a new year to set goals.We don’t need unreachable new year’s resolutions because that is what we are expected to do.We don’t have to treat the end of the year as a relieve to close a door on something bad and the new year like our chance to open a door on something better.

I like to see the end of the year like a time to go over what we did and what we have been.We might not like everything but sure there was a reason for our actions.Those reasons might be now changed and the new year will see us be a different person performing different acts,not because we were bad and then we will be better.Simply because we changed,circumstances changed and we learned from what we have been and what we have done.We learn from what it happened to us too.From those happenings we didn’t chose and didn’t plan.Because,fortunately or unfortunately, there are circumstances completely out of our control.Events that hit us like a cannonball without us being able to protect ourselves from the impact.Not much we can do about it.We can’t stop certain things from happening but,we can indeed choose the right reaction and the right attitude to cope with them.

Am I a hopeless romantic positive person?May be I am.But,I can assure you,years and years beside a pragmatic man of numbers (and not with a very positive attitude)taught me that it can be very practical to look at the glass always half full.
Very pragmatically I wish you all to say goodbye to the old year with fun,thinking at what you gained and at what you have been taught by what you have lost.I wish you all to welcome the new year with an open mind and a warm heart.We are so lucky to be able to have a new start every 365 days ……let’s enjoy it fully.

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46 thoughts on “Goodbye Good Old Year

      1. Of course it is even in Ireland but because my brain is fried in these days I wrote S.Patrick instead of S.Stephen🤦🏼‍♀️better amend the post 😬

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  1. Beautiful post Ortensia. Really enjoy reading you. You are so right when you say: It is the last day of the year,not the last day ever! I had the strangest New Year’s Eve ever. I staid at home with my son, we were both sick, while the rest of the family when celebrating. What was I wearing for New Year’s Eve? A comfy and warm pajama! And I watched a show on TV with my son… Well, he did. I fell asleep. The new year just beginning but I already feel a lot better. Hope you had a good time celebrating. All the best to you and your family for 2018!

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