a very old tradition 1.1.11

According to my source, Garrison Keillor's daily newsletter (The Writer's Almanac), celebrating New Year's goes back about 4,000 years (origins: Mesopotamia), so I guess there is a very old human need to start "anew". Every day could be viewed as a new beginning, or every hour, if we are conscious of it. But, with some kind of symbolic ritual, the turning of a page on a calendar, fireworks, music, crazy behaviors--I guess January 1st is as good a time as any other to begin to think of a new year.

Growing up in Illinois, January was always a cold, bleak month that seemed to spread into February and March. Even early April, sometimes, was marked by a snow storm that dampened spring buds and forced us to wear snow boots over our Easter shoes. But in the desert, usually, January is a month of sunshine and comfortable temperatures for hiking. Right now, I am sitting in my pajamas and UA sweatshirt as the house warms up (we turn off the heat at night and bundle under blankets) and, surprisingly, we are also waiting for ice to melt off a pipe on the roof which is frozen: hence, we have no water in the bathrooms! Kind of nice excuse to go slow and not rush about--as long as we do get water, eventually!

I will bake a new cookie recipe this morning and maybe, if the weather doesn't cloud up, try--yet again--to make my mother's divinity. But if humidity builds, divinity is a no go, so again, go slow with the plans.

The message of "a slow life" is the one I want to carry over from 2010 to 2011; perhaps with the adaptation to a "slower life" is more accurate. Moving from immobility to mobility after the ankle accident in April, signified a deeper kind of movement and rebalancing that I have tried to describe in this blog. And growth continues within. Similar to the level of healing in my ankle, where there is still slight swelling and reminders of metal parts that initially held the bones together, healing happens, cell by cell, tissue by tissue.

I guess I am not unique for my generation. We, according to today's New York Times, share a continued tendency toward self-absorption which is now becoming fixated on our aging process. But I am going to try to move into my 62 year with more than anxiety about aging and find ways to embrace the opportunities of this life stage with enthusiasm and creativity, although, no doubt, I will often have to act "as if" this is the way I feel.

But just for today, I feel pretty good about this day, about seeing friends and family tomorrow, about starting a new work week, about submitting another round of writing. There is much I can do to renew my world each day, and so that is one of my resolutions for 2011.

What new behaviors do you want to begin this year?