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How lovely to begin the New Year with you! Let’s smash a bottle of champagne across her bow and set sail. Here’s to a sense of adventure and wild, wonderful dreams.

Why not!

“Why not!” That’s a phrase I adopted a couple of years ago as my “word of the year.” Instead of making resolutions, it’s become my custom to choose a guiding word or phrase as my focus for the year. And “Why Not!” served me very well. It prodded me to step outside my comfort zone and gave me a broadened openness to new experiences.

One year, I chose the word “connection.” Friends I hadn’t seen in years came back into my life, bonds with current friends deepened, and I found myself looking into the eyes of strangers and smiling. It guided me to connect with myself more deeply, too, by helping me to remember to connect with my own heart.

Last year, I chose “Easy.” It saved my sanity many a time.

I mention it simply to offer you the idea of choosing a word or phrase of your own to guide you through the coming year. It can be anything that you want more of in your life.

But that’s not what I really want to share with you today. Instead, I want to share a line I heard in an old movie.

What Matters

“My dad used to tell me,” the doctor in the movie said to his terminally ill patient, “that you don’t measure your life by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of moments that take your breath away.”

Those are the moments of impact, the ones that pull you right out of the ordinary and fill you with awe. They’re moments of revelation, the ones that let you get in touch with magnificence, or beauty, or great calm, or compassion, or relief, or sudden understanding. They’re little instances of the profound, overflowing with a sense of life’s mystery, poignancy and wonder.

They’re what I wish for you today, as we step into this New Year—moments that take your breath away. Look for them, and celebrate them when they come along.

I don’t usually quote my own writing in these letters, but today I want to close with a poem I wrote in 2015. It’s called, “To the New Year.”

Hello, New Year, dawning over the eastern hills
with your pastel prism of light. We offer you
the wishes of our hearts, our vows
to rise higher, to love more fully, to overcome
the human failings that keep us from our paths,
to walk in contentment and peace,
to be more forgiving, to walk in compassion
for others and for ourselves, to admit
that we know so little, and, therefore,
to refrain from judging what we cannot
fairly judge. Bring us your new days,
and on each of them, let us write
what is true and good and beautiful,
in honor of the Yes that sings through all.
And when we fail, help us to remember
that you will unfailingly bring us
the light of yet another dawn.

Happy New Year, my friends. I look forward to sharing it with you. May it bring each of us ever nearer to living as our best selves.

Warmly,
Susan

^{Image by Gerhard Bögner from Pixabay}

“Optimist. Someone who isn’t sure whether life is a tragedy or a comedy, but is tickled silly just to be in the play.” ~Roy T. Bennett

I didn’t know who Roy Bennett was, so I looked him up. Turns out he’s the author of The Light in the Heart. Searching further, I found him on “X”, where he had more inspiration to share.

Here’s a post he made a couple days before Christmas with a quote from his book:

It sounded like a perfect wish to me!

On a morning where I was leaning heavily toward the tragedy side of things, reading his words carried me back to a more centered view.

I read through several of Roy’s posts, featuring excerpts from his book. “A random act of kindness,” he said, “no matter how small, can make a tremendous impact on someone else’s life.” That’s always a good reminder. We need to pump all the kindness we can into the world.

Here’s another one that I especially liked. “Believe in yourself, your abilities and your own potential. Never let self-doubt hold you captive. You are worthy of all that you dream of and hope for.”

That’s pretty profound advise to pack into three little sentences. I sat up a little straighter as I read it and even caught a little smile sneaking onto my face.

Then I read, “Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Focus on your character, not your reputation. Focus on your blessings, not your misfortunes.”

That’s maybe the best New Year’s advice anybody could give. Well, that, and “Love one another.”

If you’re an “X” user, you know how one post leads to another. I danced from Bennett’s page to several others, finding even more uplifting thoughts. I think I must have been guided by my good angel, because they were exactly what I needed to hear.

What better way to start the New Year, I thought as I sat down to write to you, than to share some of the treasures I found with you! So here are a few gems I gathered. “Reminders,” I call them. They’re things we already know to be true that deserve our renewed attention.

Take the time to read through them slowly, to absorb the truths they offer.

“One thing I’ve learned. Life is a paradox. To heal you must hurt, to love you must break open, and to have peace you must face chaos. Never regret any experience in your life, because it is always meant to bring you balance. The light always follows.”
~https://x.com/limitlessmindon

“Making yourself happy again is the biggest comeback.”
~https://x.com/SeffSaid

“Live based on your commitment to a better future, not your default habits of the past.”
~https://x.com/FCNightingale

“Allow yourself to be a beginner at things. No one starts off as excellent.”
~https://x.com/overmind01

“Being grateful does not mean that everything life brings is necessarily good. It just means that you can accept it as a gift.”
~ https://x.com/InspiringThinkn

“Okay,” I said to myself. “I’m ready now. Let the New Year roll! I’ll take all the gifts, and all the lessons they contain, that 2025 has to offer!.”

And as if to top off the gift of these encouraging reminders, my visit to Inspirational Quotes’ page left me with these wonderful affirmations for the coming year. May they sing to your heart!

2025 will be filled with love.
2025 will be filled with peace.
2025 will be filled with healing.
2025 will be filled with progress.
2025 will be filled with blessings.
2025 will be filled with happiness.
2025 will be filled with opportunity.

Amen!

Make the most of it, dear friends.

Warmly,
Susan

“Optimist. Someone who isn’t sure whether life is a tragedy or a comedy, but is tickled silly just to be in the play.” ~Roy T. Bennett

I didn’t know who Roy Bennett was, so I looked him up. Turns out he’s the author of The Light in the Heart. Searching further, I found him on “X”, where he had more inspiration to share.

Here’s a post he made a couple days before Christmas with a quote from his book:

It sounded like a perfect wish to me!

On a morning where I was leaning heavily toward the tragedy side of things, reading his words carried me back to a more centered view.

I read through several of Roy’s posts, featuring excerpts from his book. “A random act of kindness,” he said, “no matter how small, can make a tremendous impact on someone else’s life.” That’s always a good reminder. We need to pump all the kindness we can into the world.

Here’s another one that I especially liked. “Believe in yourself, your abilities and your own potential. Never let self-doubt hold you captive. You are worthy of all that you dream of and hope for.”

That’s pretty profound advise to pack into three little sentences. I sat up a little straighter as I read it and even caught a little smile sneaking onto my face.

Then I read, “Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Focus on your character, not your reputation. Focus on your blessings, not your misfortunes.”

That’s maybe the best New Year’s advice anybody could give. Well, that, and “Love one another.”

If you’re an “X” user, you know how one post leads to another. I danced from Bennett’s page to several others, finding even more uplifting thoughts. I think I must have been guided by my good angel, because they were exactly what I needed to hear.

What better way to start the New Year, I thought as I sat down to write to you, than to share some of the treasures I found with you! So here are a few gems I gathered. “Reminders,” I call them. They’re things we already know to be true that deserve our renewed attention.

Take the time to read through them slowly, to absorb the truths they offer.

“One thing I’ve learned. Life is a paradox. To heal you must hurt, to love you must break open, and to have peace you must face chaos. Never regret any experience in your life, because it is always meant to bring you balance. The light always follows.”
~https://x.com/limitlessmindon

“Making yourself happy again is the biggest comeback.”
~https://x.com/SeffSaid

“Live based on your commitment to a better future, not your default habits of the past.”
“~https://x.com/FCNightingale

“Allow yourself to be a beginner at things. No one starts off as excellent.”
~https://x.com/overmind01

“Being grateful does not mean that everything life brings is necessarily good. It just means that you can accept it as a gift.”
~ https://x.com/InspiringThinkn

“Okay,” I said to myself. “I’m ready now. Let the New Year roll! I’ll take all the gifts, and all the lessons they contain, that 2025 has to offer!.”

And as if to top off the gift of these encouraging reminders, my visit to Inspirational Quotes’ page left me with these wonderful affirmations for the coming year. May they sing to your heart!

2025 will be filled with love.
2025 will be filled with peace.
2025 will be filled with healing.
2025 will be filled with progress.
2025 will be filled with blessings.
2025 will be filled with happiness.
2025 will be filled with opportunity.

Amen!

Make the most of it, dear friends.

Warmly,
Susan

I gaze out the door at the trees,
bare now, atop the southern hill.
I remember all over again
how much I love these winter trees,
how they never fail to speak
to something inside me that relates
to them somehow, at least as neighbor.
I listen to them this windless day
as they gather, it seems, in council,
perhaps to share their dreams.
I wonder if I am in their dreams
(that woman down there
who sings to the morning birds)
the way that they’re in mine.

12/06/24
5:10 pm

The gray of the overcast twilight sky is subtly tinted pink and the snow on the hillside reflects it. The scene touches me somehow and reminds me that this is a holy time. I feel the energy of it: Love. Nostalgia. Hope. Suspense.

Ribbons of light stream past on the highway below as people drive home from work, anticipating the evening ahead.

The kid in me gets excited at the sight of the red and yellow lights that line the roof of a semi’s big trailer as it climbs the western hill and disappears around the curve that heads down into town.

This childlike delight is a part of the season, too.

Think of the face of a three-year-old gazing at the Christmas lights, at lacy flakes of falling snow. Such wonder!

On this day of the first December ice,
I quietly whisper my final farewell
to autumn, and admit that winter’s
begun to sneak in. As we put the year
to bed, we ought, I think, send it off
to dream wondrous dreams
by telling it a fine story. Perhaps
a story about a little pine tree
and his adventures preparing
for the great Festival of Light.
Yes. A fine year-end story indeed.

(Stay tuned!)

Fallen branches rise from the creek bed
like the sloughed off antlers of a deer,
the ancestor, perhaps, of one bedded down now,
deep in the woods, hiding from the hunters.
I wish him good cover and safety for the season.
The color of the fallen leaves that blanket the woods
matches his pelt I see. Nature provides.
I imagine him standing by these waters
at dawn, drinking his fill, then disappearing.
Let the hunters go home empty-handed.
It is a great gift just to roam these banks.
Let the creek’s peace be your prize for the day.

I wait for these, these sycamore leaves and oaks,
the last to fall, some of the sycamores larger than my face,
all of them larger than my palm, and so rich in color.
This is the quilt’s top layer, the topmost shield against the snow,
coming soon now, soon. But not today. Today is still mild,
and the burnished umber of the fallen sycamores and oaks
spreads itself beneath the tall trunks of the mighty ones
who bore them. I breathe their fragrance, their songs
rustling around my ankles as I walk.

After you ask, be at ease
and go about your way
knowing that, in its perfect time,
your request will be granted.
Keep your heart light, your mind
open, your trust a matter
of course. Then surrender,
and go where you are led.
Believe this. The earth is filled
with goodness, and jewels gleam
everywhere.

On any given tree, there are those who,
like race horses chomping at the bit to run,
are filled with eagerness to soar the instant
they are granted their colored flying suits.
Others wait for just the right blue of sky,
the perfect pitch of the wind, and they fly
in great flocks, like starlings flying over fields
of harvested corn. But a few hold on until
the last, gathering in one more glimpse
of the woods, of the earth, of sky
as long as they can. I would be one of those,
tucking every morsel of it into my heart,
glad for each earth-moment that I got to live,
destined for home now, twirling in joy.