Evaluation Mood - a New Year State of Mind
Tijuana, Mexico
Do you also want to evaluate at the edge of the new year? I want the statistics: How many museums, how many cities, how many beach days, where did we go, how did it unfold? What do we want to change, and how can we do it? What is the better plan, based on the things we learned?
This kind of evaluation goes through my mind while the new year unfolds in the celebration on the last night of the year and the humble beginning on the first day.
Yet I don’t really want to do the work. Logging everything is boring. I rather want to live. Today. I rather want to find a golden middle way.
So today, on the second day of the new year, I will sit down and write a longer thing about what is going on, what we learned, what we want to do in this new year, and how to unfold it all. I will do it in my language and privately. In the past year, I have shared all of my written notes and decided to continue doing so (without the irritating day count, which clearly does not work). If it is interesting enough, I might make a blog post out of it.
But more interestingly, I want to know how you all feel. What does the new year do to you? How do you handle it? Is it just another day, or is it time for scrutiny, resolutions, change, evaluation - and if so, how do you do it and how does it make you feel? Can we learn from each other's strategies so we all become better people?
We took it slow. Yoga on the roof. A bit of jogging. Walking in the sunshine, talking. Big salad and chili sin carne lunch. Sunset walk to meet the trash at the entry point to the beach, and the beauty of the sunset and the sunset itself, the first one of the year. We sang our sunset song of gratefulness for the day and the days, and met the Amish people who we had heard there is a big community of here - and felt the vibe of people who live by their values and have principles they stick to. We might not agree with their choices and worldview (but I would not be surprised; I would agree with at least 85%), but we do very much agree with those standards: Live by your values and stick to your principles.
So, this might be it. The core of what is worth evaluating and brushing up on at the edge of the new year: What will be the values of this year and the principles to stick to in order to have one more amazing year of no regrets?
Happy New Year, all.
As in: Congratulaions. One more! What a treasure. Let’s make sure we cherish it, feel it, stay in the infinity of moments in it, and stick to our most important values so we unfold what really makes sense and truly matters.
Have you read the latest articles by Cecilie Conrad?
Here you can find my latest writing - It is a mix of my blogposts and 2023 journaling. I hope you will enjoy it :)Â
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Hi, I'm Cecilie Conrad
Cancer-surviving psychologist, former single-parent; co-sleeping, yogi, gluten-free, primarily plant-eating; happily married, stay-at-home, organic barefooted hippie and mother of four, living in a bus, knitting teddy bears and learning languages, counseling and enjoying sunsets.
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3 comments
I have today found your website and am inspired by your journey. Many of the thoughts you have are similar to ours - Getting out of the system, homeschooling, worldschooling, living healthy, inspiring lives. Thanks for sharing!
Regarding new years, I want to share with you, that we celebrate new years on the spring euinox (March 20th) instead of mid winther. The reason behind it is, that we started wondering about why september (sept = 7), october (oct = 8) and november (nov = 9) were not the 7-9th month. Calculcating backwards we ended up on mid march as the years beginning. To us it makes perfect sense to start-up the year in the time when the sun comes out, the flowers come up and the energy comes back into the body and not in the darkest, coldest time of the year.
Anyway, I agree that the new year should be used for reflection, planning and basically finding out "what do I actually WANT to do" instead of "what am I behind on" or "what ought I to do". Finding the inner motivation for life and happiness should be at the forefront of everyones lives, but unfortunately only the few take the leap - Well done to you!
Hi Karen,Â
(I wonder if you are Danish?)Â
It is such a great way of thinking about it. Spring is where it all begins. Or rather, I decide where my beginnings are...Â
I sort of like the idea of the winter as the transition from "before" to "next," the dying off of nature as the cleaning out of all the old stuff and re-modeling it to become nourishment for new things.
I equally like the beginning in the spring. As my birthday is April 21, I always have that anyway, but I think you introduced a great idea of having another beginning celebration at the Equinox.Â
So what do you think about Oct 20? Do you mark that as special somehow in your family?
Cecilie
Hi Cecilie,
Yes, I am indeed Danish. I learned about your blog through another homeschooler, who I follow, who shared it online. We will start homeschooling in a year or so but I also have family members who are now starting up slowly with worldschooling, so it is a very interesting subject to me.
We are celebrating the spring euinox, as mentioned, with friends and family, a bon fire, "snobrød" and conversation. Nothing crazy. As you say, it is the time when a new cycle takes its beginning - The earth comes to life once again - new energy flows.Â
We are not specifically celebrating the fall euinox, but for me it is the time when both nature, the animals, insects (and we) slow down after a busy season (Especially if you grow food, as we do, it is when production slowly stops). The leaves turn brown and nature prepares to close down before a new cycle can begin. If I were to celebrate it (which I might do in the future), it would be a time to reflect, take stock of what had happened, prepare for the winter and go into mental hibernation - Maybe this would be the perfect time for new years resolutions, actually? Then you can use the winther months to turn the resolutions into reality while you plan for the next cycle to begin.Â
However, the way our job market and school is designed, there is no allowance for actually changing your habits, activities and energies throughout the seasons, so most people will not be in touch with this change (high energy summers and winthers of reflection and preparation).
You chase the summers, I believe. Do you ever miss the low-energy winthers? Do you ever miss the indoor, reflection-hibernation-time?
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