Midweek Geekiness Part One: Turning the Page on a New Year

Michelle W over at the Daily Post posed a simple prompt today:

Where were you last night when 2012 turned into 2013? Is that where you’d wanted to be?

It’s a good question to ask prompt or no prompt.  New Year’s Eve gets loaded with expectation and regret.  The stoke of midnight puts a period on one year, hopefully starting a new sentence on the next one.  Romance seems on top of people’s minds.  Soon after Christmas, all these talk shows had relationship advice, panels, and segments on online dating.  Let’s face it, Christmas and New Year’s usually find individuals on  a bent knee,  to the delight of expectant partners.   People want life to turn out like Sleepless in Seattle, or any other rom-com.  My life has comedic moments.  This year the laughs came as three women watched The Bourne Legacy over Coke Zero, some Pinot Noir, pizza, and a host of sweet items.

It started four years ago as a way to get together, knit, eat, and ring in the New Year.  V and E knit, I just watch and marvel they can do that skill.  We pretty much know New Year’s would be a solo affair with the same treats and movies.  Why not put everything together?  The movie ended at 7ish.  We ate pizza then talked over clicking knitting needles.  Since V lives in Alberta, it’s a catch-up session.  Work always reach the top of the list, but we also talked about what we hoped for in 2013.  Each of us lives alone, but we are not lonely.  While we discussed Jeremy Renner’s appeal, the eyes seem to have it,  simply sitting, talking, and most importantly listening is the connective tissue from year to the next.  When we separate each of us are there in spirit.  Each of us also have more individuals who will also sit, talk, and listen if we can’t do it a the moment.

In my twenties,  my New Year’s usually consisted of worrying over an outfit then sitting on the sidelines as people closely danced over some ballad.  I had no date and it seemed no grand romantic moment at these events.  For a few years I felt like I didn’t belong.  In fact I didn’t belong since this was someone else’s idea of a good New Year’s Eve celebration.  Whether it’s three people, or thirty, the right way to ring in the New Year happens once comparisons get left behind in favour of an authentic present moment.  Last night I had mine with two people whose company I enjoy.  It capped off my year and yet renewed the new one with one resolution best summed up by E.M. Forester:

Only Connect