Wishes for a New Year
New Year’s was a bit subdued for me, as I had a bad cold and chose to forgo most of the usual celebratory stuff. Most of you are probably thinking that I’ve been subdued for months now, given that you haven’t seen a weblog entry since, what, October? Those of you who got my Christmas newsletter know already that fall term was exceedingly rough and something on my plate had to go. Unfortunately, dear reader, it was you.
I stayed in bed, mostly, and tried to get rid of my throbbing sinus headache and drippy nose. One would think that living in the tropics, colds would be a thing of the past and that one would have new a maybe more interesting diseases to deal with—malaria, perhaps, or dengue fever. This is (un)fortunately not the case. But I did feel well enough to answer the door about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and it was my neighbor Liz, who invited me to her and her Palauan husband Ken’s New Year’s dinner party.
I am very glad I went. It was the usual Guam gathering: lawyers and artists and importers and interesting professionals and children and Ken’s many Palauan relatives. The highlight was, as is typical, the food: the usual Guam fiesta plates reigned, but one of the guests, who is a very good cook, made Japanese udon noodles, which are eaten on New Year’s Day for good luck through the year. You put them in broth and add little green onions, fish, diced veggies, and slurp away. It is a delicious dish, and I hope that it insures good luck for the year. I certainly feel better today, if that means anything. I spent an enjoyable evening locating the “hidden pictures” found in various issues of Highlights for Children with a lawyer friend Tom and my other friend Alison. Liz and Ken’s son David gets Highlights, and I didn’t even know it was still published. The Timbertoes, Goofus and Gallant, and the three of us had a fond trip down Memory Lane.
This email arrived today from Lee Kottner, host of this very weblog on her own site, and it’s the best New Year’s Day wish that I know. She sends it out every year, or some version thereof, and I reprint it here without her permission—mea culpa—as I can’t assume that you will access her own blog or will be able to. Here it goes:
“I wish you all health and happiness, pleasures of the body and the mind, success, new adventures, the rekindling of old loves and/or the discovery of new ones, fireworks, candlelight, security financial and otherwise, good stories, continual astonishment, spiritual enlightenment (your choice of dogma or karma), frequent amusement, a wee dram when you need it, big hearts, deep pockets, long tempers, patience, something warm and fuzzy that is already house-trained, a sense of the ineffable, and people in your life who are as dear as you all are to me. Most of all, I wish all of us peace in a time of war; compassion in a time of natural disasters; courage in a time of repression and justified torture; generosity in a time of greed and self-interest; love in a time of hatred; self-knowledge in a time of blame. Best wishes for 2006.”
I cannot improve on this. So, what she said. Blessed and happy 2006.
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