new year, same awesome

I don't know about y'all, but I find myself feeling some sort of way about the new year. Don't get me wrong, I love a new dayplanner as much as the next girl, but New Year's? Nah. Not a lot of love. If it were up to me, I'd skip us straight to the groundhog.

One, January is winter. NOT the most inviting time to go crush those goals. Look around. Mother Nature herself is showing us bears hibernating and creeks freezing over and zero-dark-thirty happening at 4pm. That whole LET'S DO THIS we humans have literally made up out of thin air goes against ALL of nature telling us YEAH, LET'S NOT DO THIS.

I think those early weeks of the "year" are perhaps better spent in flow with the natural world. I like to start the "year" slow, take my time reflecting and figuring out just WHAT I'd like to put IN that dayplanner, maybe asking myself what worked last year before worrying over this year, and then, when I feel ready, filling those pages?

Two, why can't we start in early spring? I mean, that's when the buds peek out of the cold ground, the days are noticeably getting a bit longer, and to me, it's just more fun to think of new goals. I do love all the seasons, and I run outside through all of them, even love the cold, but something about springtime makes me wanna pop off. Run faster toward all those winter daydreams. Seems more natural to really start then.

(I put "year" in quotes, cause it's made up. Man-made. And I think it's hooey, really. We should have thirteen moons. Thirteen months. Follows the natural wheel of the year. And honestly, makes WAY more sense, don'tcha think?)

Three, the New Year is totally contradictory is its messaging. On the one hand, it's a celebration, confetti covered streets, Time Square, the ball dropping, kissing someone at midnight, whoo hoo! On the other hand, and this is the part that pisses me off, we are bombarded with the new year, new me narrative. Like you can't start something new on a Tuesday, say about 2:30pm? Like there is anything wrong with you in first place? Like you NEED that weight loss program or that gym membership or that new anything? And you gotta start it NOW, January 1st, or else.

I like me. I hope you like you. If not, I hope you find a way to like you. Because we are all awesome. And we don't need the new year to transform us into some new "me's". I mean, of course, we can grow and evolve and change the stuff we don't like (Hello thighs, I'm looking at you), but don't we grow stronger and evolve faster and change better if we start with love? Those thighs I'm always side-eyeing got me up SO many hills, after all. Wouldn't it be easier to improve on something I'm already grateful for? Isn't it more powerful to start from there?

Yes. Of course we know this. We treat our plants this way, With love I mean. We don't trash them and tell them "you need a whole new me, you out of shape ficus!" We give them water and sunlight and plant food and talk sweetly to them, loving them how they are now and knowing they can grow. Why do we not do this with ourselves?

Because, marketing.

That's all.

We are worthy and wondrous and magical.

I think this is the perfect time to remember that.

So alright, I'll accept this arbitrary "new year," and I'll play along with the ball drop and the kissing at midnight, but no thanks, marketing, I do not wish for a new me. I'd like same me for 2025, thank you. She rocked some cool shit in 2024, and she also made some mistakes and lived through some epic fails. Like my Daddy says, "it's either a blessin' or it's a lesson."

Either way, I'm here. You're here. We get to be here. This new year.

And that is awesome.