Happy new year - 2015

It's 11.33pm on New year's Eve and I'm sitting here in my fluffy slippers - and, fortunately, a few other items of clothing as well -  in my 'home-office' (AKA: dining room table).  

I'm not at any party.  I haven't been to a New Year's Eve party since I was a teenager at university.  Although, I did force myself out to one party, since then, on New Year's Eve 15 years ago - when the millennia changed. 

So, 'changing-millennia-New year's Eve-parties' will be the one exception that I make to my 'fluffy-slippers-sitting-at-home-on-New Year's Eve' tradition - which I enjoy so much. 
  

I'm not complaining.  Parties are not really my shtick.   

It's currently a lovely warm summer's night, here in Adelaide, and a party is in full swing next door. I might go over and complain about the noise soon (I'm joking!!!).  I can hear them laughing and talking and their music playing.  

For my family, on New Year's Eve, it has become a tradition for us to race down our beachside road, at 9.25pm, to watch the 9.30pm fireworks (the family edition before the later midnight display) launched from the end of our local Brighton jetty.  

It's usually lovely down on the beach on New Year's Eve.  Crowds of families wearing fluorescent glo-sticks around their necks, and their heads, and their wrists fill the sandy beach.  Children toss hoops of the coloured glowing sticks - green and orange and pink - into the air, and other children run around with flaming white sparklers.  

The beach-cricket gear is usually packed away, as are the picnic baskets, when we arrive. And the last hint of the sunset, a soft apricot-orange glow, can be seen disappearing over the horizon. The night is closing in and bringing with it a relaxing peacefulness. 

The silhouettes of small boats are scattered across the ocean.  They rock gently on the waves and their red and green lights bob about and wink at us on the shore.  Children laugh and call out in excited anticipation of the beginning of the fire-works. We all scramble down the rocks to find the best vantage points.

We promise ourselves that we'll leave home earlier next time - so that we don't have to run to get here on time - and so that we remember to bring our own glo-sticks and sparklers.  

Of course we never do.

A New Year's resolution for next year, maybe?!

The warm sea breezes bring with them the smell of the ocean, and the soft sounds of distant laughter and voices from out on the boats.  

The fire-works begin.  

The beach becomes silent - except for the noises from the fireworks - low pitch thuds, clusters of pop-pop-pops, and intermittent loud bangs - plus the occasional ooh's and aah's from the crowd. 

The coloured lights explode over our heads in sprays of colour - a massive flowery display. Beautiful.  Exciting. Inspiring.

We say our silent goodbyes to the passing year, and we consider our hopes and our wishes for the new year.

Once it's all over, my children and David and I walk home again.  We admire the Christmas-tree lights cheerfully peering out from lounge-room windows, and the coloured or white lights dripping from the eaves of verandahs, or from trees, or sitting along the tops of fences. 

We immerse ourselves in the warm and happy atmosphere as we laugh and chat together - like the other families around us - also walking home or back to their cars.

And that finally brings me to this moment - having recently returned from our traditional sojourn to the local beach to see the 9.30pm fire-works display.  

I sit here now, feeling happy to be enjoying New Year's Eve with my family, and still feeling the warm glow of a day spent with a number of old friends having coffee and lovely conversations. 

The last day for 2014. 

I cannot envy the young people at the party next door.  I hope that they find a lot more happiness and lovely times in the new year. 

At Midnight they will sing Aud Lang Syne - as will many other New Year's Eve party-goers around the world. It is a lovely song based on a poem written by the Scottish poet, Robert Burns in 1788, and set to music.  

The song often reminds us about our friends - current and past - and what they mean to us:

The words 'Old Lang Syne' translate as 'Old Long Ago'.

The words 'We'll take a cup of kindness yet' refers to 'a drink shared by men and women to symbolise friendship'.  

New Year's Eve can be a bittersweet time: 

We often remember times past - and old friends.  We say goodbye to another year and we consider the future and the coming year and what it might bring.  We think about our hopes and our dreams for our lives - and for other people. We become mindful of where we are in our lives. And where we had hoped that we might be.  Maybe it's where we are.  Maybe this is even better than we had hoped for. Maybe not. And we consider the changes that we might make in our lives - to bring us closer to where we would rather be.  

And we become aware of time passing.  Our lives passing ...

And on that wistful note, and before midnight strikes, it's  now 11.54pm, I'll write my hopes for 2015:  (I'm rushing this blog to post it before the new year.  My last post for 2014)

Obviously I hope, like most of the rest of the world - for peace and happiness and love and tolerance among the people in our world.  I truly do. 

But, for myself, I hope that I can do one thing in particular during 2015 everyday:

I hope that I will learn to live, even for a short time, everyday … in the moment.

Right then. 

Not worrying about tomorrow, or regretting yesterday. But existing in the present.

Not living, during that time, in a reactive and unconscious way - as I spend most of my life.  

But savouring the moment.  Feeling it. Being conscious of it.  The way someone might during meditation, or on seeing a beautiful view, or when listening to a wonderful piece of music, or experiencing something incredibly uplifting.  

Living in the moment.  In the right brain.  Not in the logical, time-conscious left brain constantly.  


So my new year's hope:  To spend a period of time living in the moment - everyday. 

  

It is harder than it sounds!  Try it - if you dare.

I think you'll find it lovely and peaceful … to be mindful.  Even if only for a short time.

I wish everyone a happy and healthy and lovely new year for 2015 … and every year after that.  Why not?!

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I managed to get the above blog posted just before midnight. 


My last post for my first year of writing a blog during 2014.


It is now midnight and I am listening to the fireworks (the midnight version) from down on the jetty at the Brighton beach.

I can hear them pop and boom and thud in the distance, and I can imagine the colours and the lights exploding in the darkness over the water and above the faces of the older midnight crowd.  

The party-goers next door are cheering and laughing and talking.  I can imagine them kissing each other, as is the tradition, and wishing each other a happy new year.
  

New Year's Eve - 2014.  The old year is gone.  The new year is come.  

Best wishes to everyone.  

May the year bring you all that you hope for - and some lovely things that you hadn't even considered.  And, of course, health and happiness … and some great coffee (or tea or other beverage of choice) and lovely times spent with people you care about.  


And, if you're really brave and game for a challenge:

- try spending a little time each day living mindfully - living in the moment - in your right brain - not 'thinking' too much and being all logical, and time-conscious. Become aware of what you can hear, feel, touch, smell and taste in the present ...



As children, when we played outside for hours with our friends, until it became dark and we finally went indoors - and time just flew by - that was living in the right brain.  The timeless 'in the moment' stress-free part of our brains.  

It can be so relaxing and really lovely to be aware of the present, and not the past, and not the future, and not all of our worries and expectations and plans and rushing.  Even if only for a short period of time - everyday.


You may find it peaceful and enjoyable.  You may even find your self  there ... 

The meaning of Christmas

                                                                   

                                           

What a difference a day makes!

I had drafted a few ideas for a blog about Christmas yesterday.  It was a happy and light narrative filled with festive ideas about Christmas lights, and jolly shopping-mall Santas, and summer holidays in Australia, and yummy Christmas puddings with brandy custard, and cherished childhood memories of riding on hay-wagons singing carols on Christmas Eve ... 

And then the Sydney siege happened.  And then three people died.  And then I remembered the true meaning of Christmas - which is about hope for humanity.  

The meaning of Christmas extends beyond all the tinsel and presents and sugar-coated glitz which only accompany the Christmas season.  

The true meaning of Christmas stretches even beyond religion and ritual.  

It extends thousands of years into the past. Into pagan times. The Christmas traditions from our ancient European heritage, which we still hold dear in our hearts and in our minds at this time of year, symbolise a much deeper meaning of Christmas.  The meaning is the spirit of Christmas.  And that spirit is about hope.  

It is a hope for humanity.  A hope for us to remember and appreciate what is truly important in our lives.  Not greed.  Not intolerance.  Not hate.  Not ambition and career and status and money and winning.  

It is a hope that we will remember that the truly important things in our lives relate to love and compassion and helping each other and coming together in peace …

The hate-filled tragedy of yesterday - juxtaposed against  the happy  festivities of the Christmas season - brought into very clear focus, for me, the true spirit of Christmas.  The message we hear constantly at this time of year - and which we may not think much about:

 'Peace on earth and goodwill to all people.'

A century ago, in 1914 during WWI, the spirit of christmas was vividly demonstrated on the western front when a series of unofficial ceasefires were called in the week leading up to Christmas.  During this time British and German soldiers offered each other seasons greetings.  Some even met in 'no-man's land' where they exchanged food, and stories, and souvenirs, and played football (soccer), and sang carols together.  It is known now as the 'Christmas truce.'

Unfortunately, the Christmas truce was a short-lived arrangement and the troops soon got back to the business of killing each other.  The truce was also never repeated, as the first Christmas was before the poisoned-gas and the aerial bombardments. By the end of 1915 both sides were by then too bitter for this to ever occur again.

But, still, during that first Christmas the soldiers had remembered that their enemies were fellow human beings who, like themselves, were simply sacrificial pawns in an insane and futile ideological 'argument'  being fought between a very small number of men at the top of the military and political ladders.  Like most wars.  

But, even if it was for only a short period of time, the spirit of Christmas diminished the hatred and the inhumanity of war.  It reminded the soldiers about the goodness in the world, and between us, and within us.  The positive and lovely qualities of humanity. 

Obviously, not all humans are good and kind.  Some are complete bastards!  There have always been and there will always be some very selfish and cruel and evil people in the world.  However, it is my experience that, fortunately, most people are good and kind.

Yesterday two innocent and good and decent people died in the siege.  

One was the 34 year old manager on the Lindt chocolat cafe.  He risked his own life in an effort to overpower the gunman, who was beginning to drift off to sleep at around 2am.  This brave young man would have known that he might die in his attempt to save the others and himself.  However,  he would have also known that if he did nothing then all 15 of the hostages might be killed.  He is a hero.  He was a kind and brave and lovely man who demonstrated that to the world through his actions. He paid the ultimate price.  But he very likely saved other people through his actions.

The other innocent victim of the siege was a 38 year old mother who, in putting herself protectively in front of her pregnant friend, was hit by gunfire during the shootout at the end of the 16 hour siege.  She was a good and decent and brave woman as well.  She was protecting her friend and the unborn child.  She died while helping someone else.  She is also a hero. 

So, the Christmas spirit is in your heart.   It is about love and compassion and the goodness within us.  It feels warm and glowing and it unites us.   It is a hope for humanity which has survived the ages, and it is symbolised in our Christmas traditions.  

Christmas is not the traditions per se.  It is what they represent.  It is about the spirit of Christmas.  A hope for love and peace and goodwill between us.  It cannot be bought or sold.  

We hold these hopes in our souls and in our hearts and in our minds and in our memories at Christmas.

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To finish this blog - I have a few pieces of literature which I think put into words the spirit of christmas.  Hope …

Firstly, excerpts from Martin luther King's 'I have a dream speech' from August 28 1963:

- let us not drink from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

- I still have a dream … that people will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood … that people will not be judged by the colour of their skin ( or, I would add, our many differences - in status, socio-economic class, race, religion, nationality) but by the contents of their character.

- This is our hope.  With this faith we will be able to transfer the jangling discords of our nation (I would add - our world) into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

 A poem by Henry Wadsworth (1807-1882)

                                                  Christmas Bells

I heard the bells on Christmas day

Their old, familiar carols play

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth

The cannon thundered in the South

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

'There is no peace on earth,' I said;

'For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!'

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

'God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!

The wrong shall fail

The right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!

Finally, the lovely and hopeful lyrics of my favourite  Christmas song:

(Lyrics are the poetry of the modern age)

                     Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Let your heart be light

From now on,

our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Make the Yule-tide gay,

From now on,

our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,

happy golden days of yore.

Faithful friends who are dear to us,

Gather near to us once more.

Through the years

we all will be together

If the fates allow.

hang a shining star upon the highest bough.

And have yourself a merry little Christmas now. 

So, the meaning of Christmas is a hope for peace and love and togetherness and goodwill between people.  

It's a hope for the goodness in humanity to overcome the darkness in life and the evil in some people.  It is a hope which our European ancestors have carried in their hearts and their minds and through their Christmas traditions over thousands of years and through so many tragic times and sad times and horrors.  It has survived millenia because it is so important to us.  

It is a hope for all of us.  A hope for the future of humanity.  A hope for love and goodwill and peace …

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I wish everyone a happy Christmas  and a safe and a healthy and happy new year.