resolutions, revolutions, traditions, etc

mission accomplished. our best wishes and hopes and thoughts are now blowing through the wind directly to you. :), originally uploaded by emdot.

A few years ago — 2003 to be exact — I had a really fucking awful year. So at a New Year's Eve party at Dan's, I wrote down on a piece of paper all of the things I was done with and/or wanted to let go of, forget, etc. There was a bonfire at the party so I burned it at midnight and invited everyone else at the party to do the same. There was a mad scramble for everyone to quickly scribble their stuff down and then deliver it into the fire.

Since then, every year we do this.

This year I had a new idea.

My friend Dan had mentioned how last New Year's Day he and his girlfriend came across some graffiti on a train that said "AMAZING!" They loved it and made it their word for 2007. He said, "I wonder what our word for the year will be this year?"

And that gave me an idea. I've been wanting to create my own prayer flags for a while.... I thought, what if everyone at the party chooses a word for their 2008 experience. I could make a flag for each person and they could write their word or phrase on the flag. Then we'd string them together like prayer flags.

Each New Year's Day we go for a cool hike. My thought was, we'll leave the prayer flags somewhere along our hike so that others will accidentally come across our good wishes and hopes and dreams and maybe get a little heart-start happiness.

It turned out awesome. More awesome than I could imagine. It still makes me smile to think about it. :)

In addition, for the first time since I started the scribble-and-burn tradition I had very little to burn into the fire. I had to THINK about what I wanted to get rid of, where every year before has been pretty fucking crappy and so easy to just let it spill out on the paper and chuck into the fire. I can't tell you what a little bit of joy that has been for me, because it feels like progress. It feels likeI have seriously tackled some big hurdles and may have triumphed — if even temporarily. :)

And for that I feel a huge amount of gratitude.

2008 I am very happy that you are here. I feel excited about the year. ;)