Around the Bluhmin’ Town

By

Judy Bluhm

Happy New Year! Three little words. Spoken in forty-five different languages worldwide and maybe repeated a billion times. Sometimes, the words seem hollow. Or perhaps the “meaning” should not be confused with a “greeting.” So, what exactly does a Happy New Year mean to you?

Happy. Defined as an emotional state of well-being and as a feeling of joy, delight and glee. It is often used in many expressions as a wish for “good tidings.” New Year’s Day is associated with celebrations and making goals and plans for the upcoming year. Yet maybe if we want to put the “happy” in New Year, we need to ask ourselves what would bring joy and meaning into our lives. How do we achieve that feeling of delight that would make our year “happy?”

New. The word that describes “fresh” and being markedly different than what was before. With 2025 comes a “new beginning’ to live life in a different way. My granddaughter (aged nine) asked me at Christmas, “What new things will you be doing now that Papa is in heaven?” l thought a while and said I wasn’t sure. She got out a piece of paper and pencil and started making a list of “new things” for me to do in a “New Year.”

On the list was a trip to North Carolina (to visit her), getting a camper so I could hike in the woods, making peanut butter balls (her favorite) every week, learning to roller skate (I already know how) and riding horses. Good ideas. I hung the list on my refrigerator door. Sometimes we need a child to bring us fresh ideas.

Year. A specific time on the calendar, marked by mundane and sometimes life-changing events. Next year another birthday will roll around. So will more holidays, events, gatherings and work. We can plan all we want, but life has a way of disrupting the best laid plans. There will be unexpected joys, challenges and disappointments. We look to the upcoming year with collective hope of good things ahead and a new beginning.

Humans have been celebrating the New Year for over 4000 years. This is the oldest of holidays and was first observed in ancient Babylon with a festival that lasted eleven days! The beer and wine libations were flowing, and those party animals, the Babylonians, were the first to come up with New Year’s resolutions. Some of which included giving up alcohol (eleven days of drinking can do this) or returning borrowed gardening tools.

The New Year gives us time to reflect. Maybe 2024 wasn’t the year we had hoped for or expected. Yet, we can’t turn back time. We can only move forward. The greatest gifts we received at Christmas were probably not wrapped up under a tree. Love from friends and family. Gratitude for all that we have. Reverence for all that we lost. Memories of what once was. Hope for what tomorrow brings.

Dear Readers, may your New Year be happy. Celebrate you. Embrace a fresh start. Set a few goals. Roller skates are optional.

Judy Bluhm is a writer and a local realtor. Contact Judy at [email protected] or visit www.aroundthebluhmintown.com.