In this season of resolutions, I pray you make them and work towards them. If nothing else, to try something new and different. Something you've always wanted to do. Be bold. Be daring. Shoot for the moon. Be wild and ambitious. But most of all be kind. If it's one thing I've observed and wished for my life, it is that we need more kindness in the world. Pure, unadulterated kindness. To view the whole world as our neighborhood. I hope to be a part of that change.
"Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness." William Shakespeare
I thought I would start this year by passing along a few of my favorite New Year's wishes from one of my favorite authors. I love his prose and I love his sensibility and sentiment in each of the wishes. From his journal, and annual New Year's Eve entries. The emphasis added is mine.
"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself." 12/31/2007
"I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind." 12/31/2008
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something. So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever.” 12/31/2011
"So this is my wish, a wish for me as much as it is a wish for you: in the world to come, let us be brave - let us walk into the dark without fear, and step into the unknown with smiles on our faces, even if we are faking them.
And whatever happens to us, whatever we make, whatever we learn, let us take joy in it. We can find joy in the world if it's joy we're looking for, we can take joy in the act of creation.
So that is my wish for you, and for me. Bravery and joy." 12/31/2012
"Be kind to yourself in the year ahead.
Remember to forgive yourself, and to forgive others. It's too easy to be outraged these days, so much harder to change things, to reach out, to understand.
Try to make your time matter: minutes and hours and days and weeks can blow away like dead leaves, with nothing to show but time you spent not quite ever doing things, or time you spent waiting to begin.
Meet new people and talk to them. Make new things and show them to people who might enjoy them.
Hug too much. Smile too much. And, when you can, love."
For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.
Happy New Year!
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