Monthly Musing – December 2023 – New Year

New Year’s Eve.

When I was the same age as my girls, it used to be all about which party you’d be going to and where you’d be to see the New Year in, hear the midnight bells and clink glasses with favourite friends, but now, it’s more of a journal prompt to take time to reflect on the year, to analyse and review and, perhaps more importantly, be grateful.

I think it’s been interesting to see how much of this type of sentiment is showing up in my social media feeds this year, and I do know that the algorithms will have had a hand in that, but for any post to appear in any social media feed, it has to be created by someone and I like that I am seeing more of it.

Of course, this shift in emphasis is most likely down to age – I much prefer seeing in the New Year with my family at home these days, fire crackling in the grate, knitting in hand, film on the TV and a glass of something sparkling to celebrate the chimes of Big Ben to pushing my way to the bar in a crowded pub.  Years ago, I read that whatever you’re doing at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve sets the tone for what you’ll be doing most of during the next year – and I don’t want it to be waiting to get served!  🙂

I’m also much better at reflecting and being grateful now that I’m older, and I am much more aware that whilst New Year is traditionally a time for renewing our lives in some way with resolutions, we can do that at any time in the year and this often isn’t the best time for me.  It’s far better for me to take the time in January to think about what I really do want to do, and I’ve realised that running my Winter Haven KAL is as much for me as for anybody else because it’s a month of giving myself permission to slow down and often, what we really need to hear comes in the silence after all the celebrations.

Whatever you are doing at the stroke of midnight tonight, I hope that is exactly how you want to spend your New Year, and I wish that 2024 is a wonderful year for you and yours – with plenty of sock knitting in there as well, of course!

The Winter Haven KAL starts on Friday 5 January 2024.