Midnight strikes ...

In many ways, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are days like every other in the year … one day turning into night turning into another day.  And yet on 31^st December each year of the Gregorian calendar, many people around the world will celebrate that natural phenomenon. New Year is a man-made construct.  The world continues turning just as it always does every day. Man created the calendar; man created the concept of time in an attempt to bring order to our increasingly civilised lives around the changes of the natural world.

In some ways, I like the idea of ‘new year.’  It’s good to have a time to reflect back on the year that’s passed and to begin to look forward to the year ahead.  And to know that millions of other people around the world are potentially doing a similar thing feeds into that human need to belong, to feel a part of something bigger than oneself.  For me, that’s part of the uniqueness of New Year; on no other evening throughout the year are so many people celebrating, focusing on or experiencing the clock chimes of midnight with such anticipation.  And to think of people around the world celebrating as the year turns in their time zone … like a global tidal wave of time and celebration.

It can quite a melancholic time of year too as we reflect on the people, loves, pets, and other things that have been lost throughout the year.  A lot can change in a person’s life from the midnight chimes of one New Year’s Day to another and it can sometimes be difficult or even painful, to reflect on those changes.  Conversely, it can be a time of celebration of a year of achievements, happiness, love and good things experienced.

The ending of one year and beginning of a new one can also be a time of hope and optimism as people look forward to good things they hope to achieve or experience.  A new year can feel like a clean page in a book, just waiting to be filled with happy tales & images.  And I guess this is where people would write their New Year Resolutions … hopes, goals and aims for the year ahead.  For some people, these resolutions will be fulfilled; for others they turn into disappointments when they’re unable to live up to the goals they’ve set for themselves. 

For myself, I like the opportunity to stand where I am right now today; to look over my shoulder at the year gone by and to decide which learnings from the previous twelve months to bring with me and which things to leave behind.  To also look forward in the direction in which I’m heading and to catch a glimpse or two of the experiences ahead of me in the coming year.  An exciting place to be as we can never know what the future holds for us.  We can make plans and resolutions, but sometimes life has other ideas for us … & that’s both scary an exciting.

I’m looking forward with excitement and anticipation to whatever 2012 has in store for me.  I intend to make the most of the opportunities I can create for myself and to negotiate as best I can the detours life might just choose to lead me on.

Wishing you all a fulfilling, growthful and satisfying 2012, x

Holidays

I'm just back from a week away in Spain, and although for myself it was a bit of a working holiday (I took PhD work away with me), whilst I was out and about, I was observing other people and it got me thinking about a few things; things which I intend to write about over the next few days / weeks ....

Holidays mean different things to different people. For myself, when I'm away anywhere, I want to make the most of my days and of my experience of being in a new place. I'm up early and out and about. And I like to be out all day; maybe returning to my hotel / appartment early evening just in time to get changed ready for a nice evening meal out, trying the food and meal rituals of wherever I'm staying. It was interesting to see how many British people in Spain were eating 'English breakfasts,' 'Sunday lunches,' and the kind of fast food so readily available in Britain; when I'm away, I like to eat as much of the local food as possible. When I'm in a different country, I want to experience the local foods and drinks; I don't want simply what I can get at home.

I also like to see as much of the place I'm visiting as I can; if I'm going to travel to a new town, city or country, I want to see as much as possible. Holidays, for me, are full of movement; full of new experiences, sights, sounds, tastes and adventures. I'm not someone who could lie on a beach or sit around a pool all day. Yes, I like to pause for a while with a coffee or a drink and sit and watch life happening around me, watching the local culture taking place, but for me, no longer than an hour or so ... I'm too worried about missing something. I have to see everything!!!

I think we can learn so much from the different cultures we visit. It can be interesting to see different ways of life, different ways of thinking about things, different ways of doing things; and for me, that's an opportunity to stop and reflect on how I do things. Can I learn anything from the culture I'm visiting? Can I change anything about how I live my life as a result of watching other cultures in action. And isn't that what life's about....experiencing new things, reflecting on old things and considering maybe changing things in our own lives?

Holidays for other people though mean different things, and it's important to accept those differences. Some people like to go away simply to lie in the sun and do nothing; for me though, that would feel like a waste of time and a wasted opportunity to visit the sights of wherever I was. Other people like to party as much as possible; making the most of their evenings, and maybe whiling away each day recovering from the previous evening's hangover and preparing for the evening ahead. Neither of those options hold any appeal to me, but doesn't that just show how different we all are.

Holidays mean different things to different people.....what does a "holiday" mean to you? And might that change depending on where you are in your life?

For me, my recent week away was a combination of getting out and about and seeing new things from early every morning until early afternoon and then after lunch in the sun, working on my PhD before getting out to different restaurants each evening to sample the local cuisine....even if a lot of it seemed to be more Italian and Chinese than typical 'Spanish'!?