It’s almost 2015, tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. I’ve started to notice articles about resolutions online and also shared on Facebook. And I feel that old familiar pull to better myself.

Technically, it’s really no different than any other day, but beginning a new year can seem like and feel like, at least in our minds, making a new start. Lists of resolutions are conceived, pondered and written out; words of hope, renewal, and possibilities.

Change

– ourselves; our appearance, our job, our living situation, our outlook….

But what about this idea:

I love that idea; for an uplifting, fun, potentially funny thing to be able to enjoy next New Year’s Eve. Little notes of appreciation for all the little things in life that we experience, but that are hopefully so abundant as to make it impossible to remember them all, let alone reminisce about many of them.

Can’t you just imagine pulling out a little anecdote about the time a friend stopped in with fresh muffins which you both enjoyed over coffee and chitchat on the front porch? Or the time you Christmas shopped for two little girls from your community, their sweet personalized lists clutched tightly in your hand, hoping you might help make their holidays fun.

How about the day your son called you while out on a bike ride and hike under the hot Arizona sun, because he wanted to describe the scenery and of course tell you about the rattle snake he’d just encountered! Or that small moment when someone took your hand in theirs and they told you that everything was going to be okay.

Maybe one slip might be regarding a new friendship and how the first time you met for coffee you talked for nearly four hours about everything under the sun, including the vast number of things you had in common. Another perhaps mentions the wonderfully helpful lady who gave you proper transit directions to get you back on track when you were absolutely stumped, tired and chilled in the middle of busy Stockholm, Sweden.

Okay, well by now you may have guessed that those are little moments that I experienced in the past year or so, and I had to really think to bring them to the forefront of my mind. If I had written them on little slips of paper and rolled or folded them up and put them in my Happiness Jar I would have them ready to read tomorrow night. What a fabulous reminder they would be of my year.

I would add the funny things that happened, those moments that made me laugh until tears ran down my cheeks. Or not, just simple little times that made me chuckle would count, too; like when the dog stole my mother’s New Year’s Eve tiara right off her head and ran away with it!

There is no end to the things you could jot down to savor later. There should also be zero guilt as these little notes can be from whenever you like throughout your year.  No schedule to follow, no calories to burn off, and you can use any kind of paper, pens, markers, crayons you like.

Let’s remember that everything in life is relative, as in, it is how it relates to each individual that counts. So this thought tends to be very poignant as we get older, because we look back on our lives lived and fondly miss the simple moments we shared with the people important to us.

Or those times when you connected with nature; you saw a shooting star, tasted the first fresh strawberries of the season, stuck out your tongue to catch a falling snowflake. Those special memories; when you learned to cook a family recipe handed down by a grandparent, went swimming by the falls that you had to hike a mile down a dense wooded path to get to, the smells that when they hit your nose they transport you right back to being a kid again…the list goes on and on.

It’s when we take the time to remember them that we begin to fully realize what gifts these moments were.  And what treasures the people and places were to us.

The other day I bought myself a large mason jar at Michaels craft store, I’m going to start a Happiness Jar for the coming year. I can hardly wait to see it fill up with my notes and reminders, and I will be looking forward to emptying it next New Year’s Eve.

I have no idea what the new year holds, but I hope that it’s a good one. It should be off to a good start spent with my loved ones here and thinking of those far away.

My wish is one of happiness, love, peace and joy, particularly in the small moments, to you all, too. And all the best for you and yours in the coming year!

Happy

— Raina K Morton December 30 2014

 

*Title from the apropos song Brand New Day by the incomparable Van Morrison