How lovely to begin the New Year with you! Let’s break a bottle of champagne across her bow and set sail, filled with 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, I choose a guiding word or phrase as my focus as the new year begins.
“Why Not!” served me very well. It prodded me to step outside my comfort zone and gave me a broadened openness to new experiences.
Last 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.
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.
“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.
Happy New Year, my friends. I look forward to sharing it with you. May it bring us all ever nearer to living as our best selves.
Warmly,
Susan