By SUSAN DROMEY HEETER, Joyful Musings
Happy New Year, Musers, here is hoping ‘24 brings you more, ‘24 gets you on the floor, ‘24 gets you out the door. Four is way more fun to rhyme with, four is even, four is possible, four has hope.
In the meantime, new year’s is a good time to look back, to think on your three. What did you do? Accomplish? Gain? Regret? Lose? Find? As for me, I organized slides and transformed them into digital pictures. I learned how to create bags out of sailcloth. I finally got numbers 0 – 100 placed around my classroom indicating how to say them ALL in Spanish and French. I got a mouth guard to help with the grinding I do when I sleep.
And, well, most recently, I got the flu as a year end present. I’ve not had the flu – ever – I believe and was down for the count. Whew. Talk about a gift of realizing the gift that is health, the gift I’ve taken for granted for decades. But I slept and hydrated, coughed and watched more tv than I thought humanly possible. While my little family traveled to Florida, I stayed home with nurse/dog Bennie and recovered. Yikes. But a lot of sleep, a lot of rest is not necessarily a bad holiday gift.
But it’s nice to start new, to replenish energy and walk outside and leave the pity party that can be like a warm bath – fun until it gets cold. It’s good to begin in January with letting go of plans but with ideas of accomplishments, possibilities, goals. What are yours? Where does your January ‘24 self want to be? Look like? Be surrounded by?
Oh, it’s joyful to simply be alive, flu or not, goals accomplished or not. It’s good to be around for the stories, the drama, the fun, the misery, the life, the death. May your ‘24 be filled with joyful musings, loving kindness, a flu to remind you of health, and a nurse like Bennie who will invite you back to health.
Susan Dromey Heeter is a writer from Newmarket who recently let her hair go au natural white. Writing has been her passion since her English majoring days at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Dromey Heeter has lived in The Netherlands, Alaska and currently basks in all things New England, including the frigid winters. An avid swimmer, Dromey Heeter’s great passion is to bring back body surfing as most children have no idea how to ride waves without ridiculous boogie boards.