For The First Time (on a First Day)

Anyone who knows TheQueen knows that she Loves Her A New Year. I've been loving the New Year ever since, in that long ago day when we still lived in Chesterfield, back when it was still Chesterfield and still rural, my dad told me that on N.Y. Day you wrote down your new year's resolutions - things you wanted to do or accomplish in the coming year. The idea of a whole year to spend doing things you wanted to do just thrilled my little 9 year old natural mathematician's heart. I suspect it thrilled his little heart too. He was the king of natural mathematicians (IRS tax man) and used his skills to earn a good living. I, otoh, channel my love of math into Knitting Math and Cooking Math and Sewing Geometry and Strategic Planning Math.  Thank you Daddy, for sharing that love of playing with numbers. 

I have a beloved ritual for New Year's Day and I'll follow it today. It includes looking back at last year and then looking forward at the coming one. I may even light a candle this time (Thank you Michael Rawlings - you darling, you - for that idea. I knew we were soul mates.). I have a long list of ThingsToDo I want to write down. The ideas for that list have been nudging me for about 10 days now, whispering pleas to not be forgotten.  And there are one or two Big Deals that I already knew were on the calendar for 2016.  Good things. Good Big Deals. But already in the works. 

There are also a few ubiquitous things that will gain their reserved seats on my TTD list. Declutter the house, get back to my weight goal, drink more water ... but there's no sense of urgency about them. I think, for the first time ever, I'm not dissatisfied with myself. Whatever tweaking that needs to be done I feel confident I can do it. What dreams I may have already look fulfilled. I am moving into 2016 with the most delightful sense of calm, peace, and bliss. (Even though I suspect there is a horrific letter coming from one of the many irritating health insurance companies we pay $$$ to ... just something I forgot to do, ya know.) Even with that cropping up in January - well - I just think I'm gonna handle that too. It's all going to be alright.  

And that is a first. To step into tomorrow as if it were already here. And I want to tell you - that is one great feeling!  It came as no surprise when I got this little pep talk from my favorite guru, Martha Beck:

Who would you be if you were simply present, like a wild animal, without past or future? What would you do if you didn’t know it was impossible? What would you believe if you trusted that all your longing will be fulfilled? Every time you contemplate a question like these, you become a little bit more bewildered—by which I mean you’re learning to be wilder, to let go of your mind’s judgments and fears and live from your core.

~ Martha Beck, Quarterly Coaches' Newsletter, December 2015

So here's to a blissful 2016.