January 1, 2023 A New Year

It was a new year, a new month, a new week and a new day. Everything was still much the same as it was twenty-four hours before. Regardless, it was a good reason to look back at what the previous twelve months have been like. We used that time to reflect on all that happened in the last fifty-two weeks.  What a crazy 365 days it has been.

And it was also a great excuse for a party.

With less than two weeks to go in the year of our lord 2022, we decided to have a party to celebrate the end of 2022 and welcome a new beginning for 2023. We didn’t have all our friends there, those that did come were welcomed with open arms. It was a great connection to end a tumultuous year. What better way to celebrate than to have a throwback to the past by sharing a feast and a fondue. There were twelve of us, and six fondue pots. Four meat and two cheese. What a fantastic way to connect and celebrate a new year and new beginnings.

A year ago the thought of twelve people sitting at a table together and sharing food and space would have been met with fear and derision. Thank god that’s over. There is something special about sharing food in a way that connects people like no other. 

We laughed and smiled and had friends who had never met before connect over an evening of love and deliciousness. It was a New Years’ Eve to remember.

Considering I didn’t drink that much I will remember it as well.

I thought back to New Years’ Eve one year ago. This one couldn’t have been much more different. Yet they are both very special in their own way. Last year my family and I went to Cabo San Lucas and partied on the beach and watched a fireworks and drone show for the ages. This year twelve of our good friends sat around a table and connected over a feast. No fireworks required.

I know some people who treat new years eve like it is just another day. They go to bed early and don’t stay up to see the new year in until they wake up in the morning all refreshed and ready for the day.

I am not one of those people. 

I have not missed a New Years’ Eve celebration yet. In my thirty-four years of adult life, I have been there for every midnight. I have welcomed the New Year from beaches and mountain tops, from the quiet of my home and the rumble of a bar. Even in the dark days of covid, we managed to find a way to celebrate.

And why not?

I enjoy bringing in a new year and looking forward to a new beginning. I know it’s just a day, just another twenty-four hours in our lives. But in some way, it feels different. It feels good to mark the moment in time when we flip the calendar and mark the exact second it occurs. It is a way to connect with others and ourselves and mark the time for the future. 

It’s also a good time to reflect and look forward.

I could not have known one year ago that I would end up testing positive for covid and getting stuck for an extra eleven days in Mexico. An extra eleven days I sorely needed. I would not have predicted all the events of a momentous year.

I thought the worst we could go through was over. But I was wrong.

There was a war in Ukraine when the Russians invaded, I would have thought impossible only two years before. After the pandemic, everything seemed off the table. Truckers and other frustrated Canadians decided to march on Ottawa and grind the capital city to a halt. They demanded freedom – while real freedom fighters in Ukraine died under Russian bombs. 

In 2020 our Prime Minister claimed money was cheap so he could borrow our country into the deepest debt ever. Money borrowed to pay people to stay at home. While many people needed the free covid bucks to survive, far too many did not and took it anyway. Because hey, it’s free money. There is no such thing as free money. Nor is it cheap.

The final cost has yet to be tallied. Here we are two years later and inflation is out of control. Money is no longer cheap with interest rates soaring out of the stratosphere. The true cost will be determined by the number of people losing their homes in the coming months. My own debt service doubled in the last year. I fell victim to the belief that interest rates would stay low and money would stay cheap.  And I’m one of the lucky ones with a safety net built up from years of hard work.

Others have ended up on the streets.

I hope 2023 brings better days. I hope we can find a way to make life more affordable. I hope to see our world unite and find a way to overcome the division and fear. I hope Russia will leave Ukraine.

I hope…

Have an amazing 2023 everyone.