A New Year of Mystery and Magic

December 31, 2o19

Are you happy this year is over? Or are you sad to see it end? Are you hopeful for the new year ahead? Or are you hesitate to get your hopes up about anything? 

I think there are a myriad of emotions for the last day of the year and what to do on the party eve of them all — New Year’s. 

I have slept through New Year’s, been with crowds big and small. The one that stands out for me is New Year’s 2012.

I went to Times Square with a friend who had the perfect set up with her family’s apartment blocks away.  We stood inside the pen (areas corded off for watchers) for three hours and then left because we got hungry. 

Once you leave the pen you can’t get back in. We were determined to find a way. The night was unusually warm, tooting horns and the sight of the ball far overhead filled us with excitement. 

Midnight was fast approaching, we had seven minutes before the ball would drop. We turned the corner and headed toward Central Park. At 7th Avenue to our surprise, a gate was opened and there at the intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue, we could see the ball at 1 Times Square.

All around us languages from all around the world could be heard.  The cheering with each second 10-9-8 … 3-2-1 and then there was more. Fireworks exploded and reflected off buildings surrounding the park. “All you need is love” the night’s music anthem, it was a magical way to start the New Year. 

2012 wasn’t a great year. It was a significant one though; a turning-point year. I knew that life held more and so too as I enter 2020, the same internal stirrings arise. 

My word for the year is intimacy. What is yours?

What speaks to you? What calls you?  Therein lies the answer, the bridge from this year to next. The mystery and the magic of a year yet to be. 

Wishes for the happiest and healthiest New Year yet, 

Louisa 

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