... a single swan candlestick, that I bought twenty years ago or more and found the other day in the back of a cupboard. It really needs a spherical candle to reinforce the swan effect but I don't have one!
... and a vintage New Year's card I bought a few months ago in Cologne. Toadstools, it appears, according to my German blogging friend, Natalie, are traditional German symbols wishing good luck at New Year so I am pleased these happy gnomes know what's what and have made their home in one!
2013 hovers on the threshold of being and I find myself contemplating the coming year with a mixture of happy anticipation (so many creative projects waiting to see the light of day and a whole new year to complete them in!) and slightly anxious uncertainty (some big decisions and choices around work and priorities loom on the horizon). I am a perpetual worrier so perhaps it's not surprising that I peep into the New Year a little tentatively.
New beginnings were always unclouded to me as a child - I loved the arrival of the New Year in January with the novelty of a new number to write in the date and I also loved the beginning of the academic year in September with its opportunities for sharp, new, coloured pencils and pristine exercise books, unmarred by careless writing and crossings out and without the dog-eared corners that they would inevitably acquire in subsequent months, but I seem to have lost that a bit as I've got older so although all my Twelve Days of Christmas Blessings come from the heart, this seventh one particularly so.
May you be blessed with serenity as the old year glides, swan-like, into the new one; may your plans be blessed with optimism, your hopes with possibility and if you have worries or anxieties that seems to cast long shadows, may you be blessed with tranquillity in facing each day as it comes. May you be blessed also with companionship in setting out on the journey that this New Year begins and may there always be light and shared laughter to illumine the way ahead.
Happy New Year!
Bonne Année!
Herzliche Neujahrsgrüße!
E x
Oh, I love the gnomes and toadstool! LOVE!
ReplyDeleteI, too, love the promise of a new year and I felt the same way in September, like you!
Thank you for your lovely swan and thank you for the twelve days. It's fun! I shall do something to commemorate 12th Night because of you, Mrs. TT!
What a fabulous swan candle holder! And adore that greeting card. I love toadstools too, and it is great to know they are good luck. Happy New Year! Minerva x
ReplyDeleteMy hubby would also describe me as a worrier and I guess I probably am....I am looking forward to 2013, it holds change for us too, but I am hoping in among the challenges there will be new skills to learn, new things to see.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your always evocative writing and inspiration, you were a very happy discovery in 2012's blogalong...here's to 2013!
Hi there E - I've been loving your '12 days of Christmas' musings - new year is a great time to reflect, anticipate and to make decisions. In some ways it's a more pleasant experience than Christmas because it's filled with the unknown as opposed to the expected traditions and repetitions of Christmas. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have planned for 2013 creatively. Thanks for all your blogging help this year - one resolution I've made is to write shorter and more frequent blogs. Happy New Year! Judy.
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