The reason I wrote the title as I did was, I remember all the hype around the year 2000, New Year’s Eve. Y2K. Companies figured with the new millennium all the computer systems would crash or cause computer errors because of the format of the date. Can you believe that was twenty-four years ago?
We had a little white bear, wearing a black top hat and vest. His paw pad had the number 2000 on it. If you pressed its paw, it would sing—long and drawn out—in a Bostonian accent, “Welcome to the year 2000.” To this day, I still remember the sound of the recording. I wish we had kept that bear. I think after eight years, we figured it was something we didn’t need hanging around. Next year, on the 25th anniversary, I bet it will be a collector’s item.
Welcome to 2024. After all the stress and excitement of December, including Christmas and New Year’s Eve, now, in January we face stresses of setting goals, resolutions, purchasing a gym pass, writing chapters one day at a time… the next 365 days is an open book… and the list goes on and on. It’s overwhelming to say the least if we involve ourselves in those expectations for the new year.
One thing I’ve done is determined a word and a phrase. Both seem to be the ‘buzz’ this year. Deciding on a word that defines the upcoming year. My word is ‘SHARE.’ Something I strive to do, but not as much as I could. If you met me in person, I’m the one in the background keeping quiet. It’s my nature. I find it difficult to share things about my life. But I wish to share more of myself this year. I’d like to share my writing, crafts, and experiences in my life. I hope you don’t mind receiving those shares.
My phrase is “DO THE WORK.” It’s not that I don’t do the work to complete projects. I do. With my ‘share’ word, though, I need to do the work to make it happen; to complete a project, I need to do the work; to get to my optimum weight, I need to do the work; to exercise, I need to do the work.
If you’re deciding on some kind of plan for 2024, determining a word and phrase to start might be a good idea. If it doesn’t speak to you, that’s okay too.
We’re told emotions run high in January, more to the dark side. It’s because of the light we don’t receive, and the bills leftover from December that we ‘do’ receive. Blue Monday, the third Monday in January, is claimed to be the most depressing day of the year. The media makes a big deal of it, and if you’re not feeling sad before listening to any newscast about it, guaranteed you may feel sad afterward.
If this is a down time for you, please take care of yourself. Seek help as required. One thing I do is dance. I put on music I love, usually the oldies, and bop away to it.
Sometimes it helps to identify the emotion we’re feeling, especially with everything that’s going on in the world. A barrage of feelings may come at us from every direction, triggered at any time.
I took part in a book collaboration in 2018, The Book of Emotions Or—how it feels to feel curated by Anna Linder. Fifteen authors open-heartedly shared their experiences and perspectives on the emotions of: anger, freedom, support, vulnerability, trust, hope, shame, peace, fear, joy, grief and courage.
Anna wanted a book to reflect how it feels to feel these emotions with the intent “to serve as a guide to everybody and anybody who has shut down or lost their internal navigation system in life.”
It is with hope this book will offer the reader the freedom to feel and empower them to navigate their own life with more ease, giving them greater knowledge and support on their journey. The book is not about the how and why we lose our feeling, but more of an invitation to relearn, re-connect and recognize our feelings.
Here’s an excerpt from my writing on the emotion of joy in relation to the dancing I do to feel better:
I found the delicious elusiveness of joy when I learned to dance again. By letting go of heavy cement feet and that thick brick inside, a big lump that sits there in my chest full of garbage and pain. Stepping with light feet and getting rid of the heaviness throughout my body allowed oxygen bubbles of joy to come up through my being, effervescent and tickling.
And in the last paragraph:
I thank my body for learning to dance again. I thank all my senses for including me in the dance of life where I can be part of the world, en-JOY-ing the simplest and most delicious of times. Joy, it makes my body hum–healing and rejoicing with light from every colour of the rainbow shining just for me.
To find the book of emotions, visit:
(Website) The Book of Emotions Or—how it feels to feel curated by Anna Linder
(On Amazon) The Book of Emotions Or—how it feels to feel
My wish for you is to find your own sense of Joy in 2024. Hugs Patricia