Out With The OLD . . . In With The NOW December 31, 2011
Posted by nrhatch in Food & Drink, Happiness, Mindfulness.trackback
My “resolution/goal/plan/intent” for 2012 is simple . . . let go of the “OLD” to make room for the “NOW.”
More specifically:
* Remain awake and aware.
* Stay focused on THIS moment.
* Enjoy the journey.
* Be patient ~ allow the path to unfold.
* Be Here Now.
Midnight tonight (New Year’s Eve) signals the transition from OLD to NEW in venues all around the world.
Since moving to Florida, we are no longer content to celebrate the arrival of the New Year vicariously.
Instead of sitting on the couch to watch revelers in Times Square watch a big ball descend a long pole amid a cacophonous chorus of horns, whistles, bells, drums, fanflukers, and sardineous screams of 3! … get off my foot … 2! … stop pushing! … 1! … Happy New Year!!!, BFF and I greet the New Year on the beach with fireworks screaming overhead at midnight.
Last night, we watched a show on New Year’s traditions around the world.
Our ears perked up and stomachs growled with delight when the host mentioned that eating chocolate on New Year’s Eve will improve one’s “luck” in the New Year.
Chocolate? Yes, please.
We have an ample supply of chocolate at the ready . . . including two slices of Dark Chocolate Cream Pie which we plan to inhale just before heading out to the fireworks.
Aah . . . that’s better!
How do you “ring in” the New Year? Alone or With Friends? In or Out? Awake and Aware? Sound Asleep? Sleepwalking? Sober? Intoxicated?
However you choose to celebrate . . . Be Happy!
Our mood at midnight (as well as the type of food we choose to eat) tends to follow us into the New Year.
Enjoy a smorgasbord of gustatory pleasures and delights tonight . . . for tomorrow we die-et!
Related posts: Old Year Resolutions (Love Out Loud) * Simple Food Changes (Be W.E.L.L.) * 2012 ~ A Year of Living in the Gap (Suzicate) * New Year’s Challenges ~ 2012 Here We Come (Inspired Vision) * Failure ~ Succeeding In The Opposite Direction (Janna T Writes) * 2012 Anti-Resolution Revolution (Julie Hedland) * Shout It Out (Creating Reciprocity) * Lucky Foods for the New Year (Epicurious) * May Your Blessings Be Abundant (Suzicate) * Imagine (Smiled Soul) * Hopes and Wishes for 2012 (Jeanne’s Blog) * Dodo (Kate Shrewsday)
* * * * *
Artwork by Peter R. Gerbert ~ Spoonbill Lagoon ~ a portion of the proceeds from sales of this fine art print benefits AUDUBON OF FLORIDA’S Roseate Spoonbill research projects and protection efforts.
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Spirit Lights The Way 
Your advice here is good. I will be celebrating with family as I have nearly always done. Since I will start having to drive home early on New Year’s Day, if I manage to stay up to ring in 2012 I will be quickly to bed. My time with family went by quickly as it always does.
Happy New Year to you and your family.
Lee
Wrote By Rote
Thanks, Lee! Enjoy the tail end of 2011 and the debut of 2012. Safe travels in the new year. 😀
happy new year…thanks for sharing this years journey with me x
Thanks, gitika. Here’s to enjoying the journey . . . as the path unfolds before us. Happy New Year!
Health, love, joy, and gratitude to you and your family in the coming year.
Thanks, Renee! To you to. Here’s to hanging on to the rest of our body parts. 😉
I picked up one of your books from the island library yesterday . . . Invisible No More! I look forward to reading it before I meet you and your co-authors on the 24th!
Good plan, Nancy – I think I’ll try some of that myself! Wishing you and yours al the best for 2012.
Thanks, Trisha! To you too! I feel all kinds of excitement swirling with the coming of the New Year. In uncertainty, lies all possibility.
Your plan sounds delightful, Nancy. The best way to live life is to live it.
Thank you for this happy excuse to eat chocolate tonight. 🙂 We are going to dinner with some friends. Who knows where our rowdy bunch of mid-lifers will be by midnight? We haven’t planned things that far.
Happy New Years Eve, Nancy!
Have a Happy “Hoochie Coochie” New Year, Andra! Just remember to imbibe, ingest, or infuse a bit of chocolate into your evening . . . to give you that extra measure of luck.
Maybe chocolate martinis?
Love the flams. Glades is just 35 miles west.
We haven’t been to the glades, the keys, or Miami . . . yet.
Spoonbills visit our lagoon from time to time. They’re my favorite bird because I’m partial to the pink coloration and their comical spoon shaped bill. 😉
I’ll be ringing in the new year by sleeping. 🙂 Or maybe I will stay up and eat chocolate… it’s as good an excuse as any!
Maybe we’ll all collapse into a chocolate coma just after the stroke of midnight! Aah . . . what a way to end the year.
Here’s to ending 2011 on a high note that carries long into the new year.
Dang! … I ate chocolate last night … and come to think of it, the night before as well!
Eat M’Or! 😀
We’ve been eating it every night this week . . . and will continue to do so well into the new year.
Chocolate is our BFF!
Food for thought as well as eating – Happy New Year!
ps have you seen A River of Stones January 2012? http://www.writingourwayhome.com/p/river-jan-12.html Sounds like a great challenge.
Thanks, Ronnie!
I have seen the challenge and know several bloggers who plan to create a path of stones in January.
It’s a wonderful challenge . . . designed to keep our eyes, ears, hearts, and minds open to all that is offered.
let go of the “OLD” to make room for the “NOW – love your moto! And the idea of chocolate just makes everything seem so much more delightful!
Thanks, Suzi! Happy New Year! Here’s to making room for the NOW . . . including delicious and delectable CHOCOLATE! 😀
Oh Katherine’s going to love that chocolate bit. Have a great New Year Nancy!
I like the idea that we SHOULD make room for chocolate on New Year’s Eve! That’s a resolution I can live with.
Gather round the GOOD STUFF!
Happy New Year to you and Katherine.
Just CH and me ringing in the New Year! Eating a bit of creamed herring, a tradition passed down from my Mom and Dad. Been doing it almost all my sixty years and CH and I have been carrying on the tradition for the 37 years we have been married. Tiny bit pressed between two Ritz crackers and then on to the good snacks! Chocolate too! Happy New Year’s Eve Nancy!
Thanks, Pixie! Happy New Year to you and CH. Here’s to enjoying all the GOOD we can while we can. 😀
Here’s to all of us having a fabulous Happy New Year!!!
Happy New Year, Linda! Hope 2011 goes out in style for you and yours.
[…] Out With the Old..In With the Now (Spirit Lights the Way) […]
A very Happy New Year’s wish to you Nancy! …and wishes for abundant happiness in the moments of “now” throughout the coming year(s). Thanks for the wonderful links at the bottom of your post…so many insightful and special people and ideas are linked there! No actual “resolution” here…I don’t do those any more…I just try to live each part of my day and each day as clearly aligned with my own life aspirations… a bit different from a “resolution.” And New Year’s Eve?…we used to have wonderful, big, happy parties…but friends have moved and dispersed and we got worn out giving them…so now celebrate with the 2 of us and share our appreciation for the people, life and amazing opportunities we have.
Sounds like a wonderful way to wave good-bye to 2011 and welcome 2012, Kathy.
I read so many terrific end of the year posts . . . I’m sure I missed linking up with a few of them. But I did my best. 😀
Happy New Year.
I like the chocolate tradition – what a great excuse!
Out with the old is always a good practice and the beginning of a New Year is a good place to start!
Our New Year’s Eve was very quiet; we went out to dinner at a friend’s place, came home before midnight, had a few cherry liqueur chocolates with a mandatory New Year’s Eve drink 😉 watched a few revelers singing merrily as they passed our house and saw a few fireworks. But this old body of mine was crying out for sleep, so I was in bed before midnight! 😦
Happy New Year to you and yours Nancy!
We have two hours until “Happy New Year.” We’re about to have some dark chocolate pie. That should give us the sugar rush we need to make it to midnight.
Have a good sleep and wonderful start to 2012.
I don’t know about chocolates improving ones luck I heard they improved ones sex life. Personally they give me chronic heartburn, ;( especially when consumed with champagne LOL. You would do well in France Nancy – they are chocoholics.
My “resolution/goal/plan/intent” for 2012 is simple . . . let go of the “OLD” to make room for the “NOW.” an excellent goal and one we should all keep shriving to achieve.
A HAPPY NEW YEAR from Portugal!
(PS I am a sad soul sitting at my PC, the Party we were going to was cancelled!)
Aww . . . sorry the party got cancelled.
But if you average in “no party” tonight with that 10 hour lunch you enjoyed on Christmas Day . . . you’re holiday celebrations come out quite nicely. 😀
Happy NOW Year!
PS that should be YEar not YAr, Too much champagne already!
Fixed it! Better too much champagne than “tee many martoonis.” 😉
It sounds like so much fun to celebrate New Year’s at the beach with fireworks! Have a Happy New Year Nancy, I like your plan as that is also my focus to be in the NOW and enjoying the journey. Like Kathy, family and friends are all over the States so it’s just me and my mate celebrating the New Years. 🙂
Thanks, Marie. We had a neighbor in for Happy Hour and I talked to my younger brother in Colorado and my parents.
Now, we’re going to have some DARK CHOCOLATE pie . . . and then head to the beach.
Hope your New Year gets off to a FUN filled start!
What a wonderful way to see in the new year..here we will attempt to stay awake until the appointed hour..and wake up rested and ready to face the year..Happy New Year to you and yours!
Chris
I expect that we will be in bed by 12:30, or soon there after. My days of being a “dirty stay up” (as my great aunt used to say) are behind me.
These are lovely sentiments to start a new year with… wishing you and your family a wonderful 2012!
Thanks! Happy New Year to you, JAS! 😀
Just ate some M&M’s per your advice. Hopefully, our luck will improve in 2012. Happy New Year Nancy!
Excellent! We had some Dark Chocolate pie and are about to head to the beach for fireworks (although the bed looks pretty inviting about now). 😉
Happy New Year, Theresa! Hope it’s filled with all good things.
Love your goal for the new year! Somehow, I think you will accomplish it fully 🙂
We don’t go out for the New Year (too many drunk drivers.) I may be up at midnight, or not…I don’t know 🙂 We finished putting away our Christmas decorations so I’ve done what I wanted to before 2012 gets here!
I hope your chocolate pie and New Year are SWEET!
P.S. Thanks for the link back to my end-of-the-year post…I appreciate it!
Thanks, Janna. We made it out to the beach at midnight for the fireworks and collapsed in bed as soon as we got home. Didn’t see any drunk drivers . . . but heard and saw lots of “merry makers.”
We still have our Christmas tree up . . . but the Santas are packed away until next year.
Happy NOW Year! 😀
A chocolatey New Year to you, Nancy! 😀
Thanks, BB! We had a very pleasant end to the OLD and start to the NEW. Perfect night for fireworks on the beach. Warm and wonderful start to 2012!
With chocolate as the BONUS!!! 😀
LOVE your five points. Off to write them on my fridge door 😀
Wonderful, Kate! When I started blogging, I did so, in part, to collect what I’ve learned “in one place” for handy reference. All these wonderful cyber connections have added an entirely different dimension to the experience.
Write on!
I love your plan for the new year. I hope to continue to try to do most of the same.
AWESOME! Here’s to getting “out of the way” so that our inner peace, joy, and happiness surface . . . of their own accord. 😀
Slipping in here a little late, Nancy, so I hope you made a grand entrance to 2012!
We ended 2011 with a BANG! ~ a walk on the beach, a bike ride, a soak in the hot tub, Happy Hour with a neighbor, lots of good things to eat and drink . . . then FIREWORKS at midnight.
BOOM!
Zonked out about 3 minutes after we got home and had a STELLAR night’s sleep . . . a solid 8.5 hours, with NO bathroom breaks! Yay! 😀
Hope 2012 exceeds your wildest dreams.
Happy New Year! It is stinking hot here. Trust me, you know it is hot when Africans are saying “it is expletive-deleted HOT”.
We’ve had some lovely weather . . . but a cold front is coming in tonight. I may have to bring my tomato plant inside for a few days. Brrr . . .
Stay cool, calm, and collected. 😀
Hope you had a lovely New Year celebration. Wishing you all the best for 2012!!
Thanks, LOL! Happy NOW Year!
I’m with you on the NOW though I love to reminisce and ponder a while… it’s all good. TY! 🙂
Pause and reflection go hand-in-glove with living in the NOW. As we wonder, wander, ponder, and meander, we stay focused on whatever task we have assigned ourself. Om.
“Out with the old, in with the now.” LOVE that. I want to be much more present this year. I try, I really do. But it’s not always easy. Day by day, minute by minute. That is how it goes.
I find that setting little “alarm clocks” helps me tune in to what is being offered . . . right here, right now. Examples ~ the feel of the sun on my face . . . a bird flying by my window . . . the feel of the floor tiles under my feet . . . the sound of the water as I wash my hands . . . the color of carrots as I peel and slice them.
I expect that very few of us are mindful of the moment every moment . . . but we do benefit when we keep bringing ourselves back to the present. Here, Now . . . where the dance of life takes place.