“I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me—shapes and ideas near to me, so natural to my way of being and thinking— that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down. I decided to strip away what I had been taught—to accept as true my own thinking. I decided to start anew.” – Georgia O’Keeffe wrote to a friend in 1915.
One definition of ANEW is beginning in a transformed way…
It is not that we haven’t stood on this precipice of a burgeoning year before, but this time, yes, we are beginning anew in a fresh or different form of last year’s self.
Cultures the world over welcome the New Year in unique and meaningful ways.
We have experienced fireworks in Italy. In Ireland, many people bang the outside of their houses with bread. Both cultures have the same goal, to ward off bad spirits. In Spain, and also in some parts of Italy and South and Central America, red undergarments are worn for luck. In Denmark and some parts of the Southern Hemisphere, we have experienced people literally jumping into the New Year, whether it is off the couch or off a pier. Taking the leap is a must and is considered bad luck if you don’t. In Russia, when I was a teenager, a Babushka taught me that the evening of New Year’s Eve is for remembering the most important events of the past year, and the 12 seconds just before midnight are for silence, not noisy counting. This peaceful pause is for making wishes for the new year.
Perhaps the tradition we remember the most vividly was a trip just my husband and I took to Mexico when the kids were little. It was our first trip as a couple, and we walked the streets talking about the New Year and its possibilities. We saw people dragging empty suitcases around the block and learned this tradition is designed to attract a year filled with travel and adventures anew. Little did we know, our life would never be the same because of that trip.
Under the setting Mexican sun, we spoke, for the first time, about becoming nomadic and learning from cultures the world over. As people danced in the streets, under a kaleidoscope of Mexican lanterns, making wishes, and toasting strangers, a seed was planted that would change the course of our family’s history. Just as the quote above says, we had things in our heads and hearts that were so foreign, and yet the shapes and ideas were so near to us and so natural to our way of being and thinking that once the idea took hold we could not put it down.
We know, standing at the beginning of this year, that it is time to start anew. We are transformed by the past 4,749 days, 677 weeks, 156 months, and 13 years since that moment on the other side of the Rio Grande. We know it is up to us to determine and decide what we carry in that suitcase around the next block and what remains in the past that we no longer wish to bring forward into this next year. It is an important decision that we have the power to make every day but somehow it feels more liberating today than it does on any other day of the year. This is why ANEW is the word of the month and not “new”. ANEW carries with it a sparkle of wisdom in one’s eyes and a smile brimming with excited anticipation knowing all is aligned and purposeful no matter what happens.
The key is to decide with conviction, as Georgia O’Keefe penned, “I decided to start anew.” It is not something anyone can do for us. It takes courage and intention to make such decisions.
Our wish for this time to begin anew is, as Nelson Mandela so powerfully stated, “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
