Why wasn’t I this inquisitive when I was in high school?
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“Happy New Year!” we’re encouraged to say. Do we mean it? Sometimes. There is much we say because it is what’s expected of us and not because it’s what’s really on our minds. I know I sound like a killjoy but really I want to feel honest about the sentiments I convey. Just like so many things, the new year is a human construct developed to help us make collective sense of our existence and it certainly isn’t always happy.
I was curious about the celebration of the new year and so I did some perfunctory internet research. I wanted to know why we didn’t recognize the shift in time during a solstice or equinox, or why not during one of the full or new moons. There are other celestial and seasonal events like harvests to consider. How did the notion of the sun rotating around the earth or that of a flat earth impact our recognition of the passage of time? I also ask myself why I wasn’t this inquisitive when I was in high school.
I learned that much of what I mention above was, at one point, considered to be the culmination or initiation of the year. After mathematicians, the Catholic Church and others got a hold of it though, and in an effort to standardize, our current Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1582 replacing the Julian calendar.
This is all likely more than you wanted to know. Regardless, I have found myself increasingly nonplussed by the relentless marking of time but not the passing of time. I am increasingly excited by seasons, the phases of the moon, the changing geometry of the angle at which the sun hits the earth and when things grow and die. The numbers on the calendar are helpful, as maps are, but there is so much more to make note of.
My New Year’s message is to not take the gifts of this life for granted. Stay observant and see what you notice. Enjoy asparagus in the spring and apples in the autumn. If you’re lucky you will age. If you’re lucky you will not but you will have taken the time to bask in what your time on this earth, in this vessel, your body, had to offer. If you’re motivated you will continue to learn and stay curious.
As difficult as it is to cultivate optimism in the face of the current political and global climate I feel the need to try. The practice of Yoga recognizes that we all have the potential to uplift the human condition and not just our own conditions.
This is not lost on me and yet I’d be lying if I said that this is not a challenge. At the same time the notion of my own state of mind, the power of meditation and the individual contributions of so many having the ability to make the world a kinder, more gentle place fills me with hope.
And now…. Happy New Year!
Join me January 30-February 2, 2025 in Woodbourne, NY to cultivate optimism, find balance and plant the seeds for kindness.
Learn more here: https://primulacerebri.com/
Contact me here: https://primulacerebri.com/contact/
