I Promise To Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

From the time I moved out of my parents' home, on New Year's Eve my parents would call me. I'd pick up the telephone and hear both of them shrieking, HAP-py NEW Year! at the top of their lungs. And we would all laugh as if that were the funniest joke on earth. It was one of the many things I missed when they were both gone.

As a family, we did not make a fuss over the old year going and the new year coming. I remember one year they were invited to a party and my dad had the flu and was not up for the festivities. I must have been 8 or 9 years old. At midnight we three sat around the kitchen table with cups of hot chocolate and my dad, the liquor store owner, groused, "Unless this cocoa has CREME DE COCOA in it I'm not much of an advertisement for my own products!" Sick as a pup, he could still joke.

Another year I recall being invited to a party hosted by one of my high school classmates. No one drove in those days. As we were walking home, someone suggested we raid the liquor cabinet of one of the absent parents. I deferred and went straight home, sure I had missed something. My parents' bragging on my 'correct behavior' more than made up for anything I may have missed. Besides, I had no headache the next day...

We have never done the resolution thing, either. We made promises to ourselves and to one another. We would promise to be kinder and more patient, to learn bigger words in the coming year, and to help more people in more ways. My folks were big on doing nice things for other people and never getting "caught", like when my dad forgave the huge grocery bill after the mother of a big family died and my mom took food to people whose kids had stolen candy from their store because she knew they were hungry.

For 2009 I promise to myself to remember all the fun I've known, and indulge in more fun, to keep in close touch with all the people I love, and to SIMPLIFY. I hope I can help people and not get "caught" and I hope I live long enough to see world peace. I promise to drink my water , eat whole foods, take my vitamins and minerals, drink that delicious stuff with the funny name- Limu. There is no reason I can't promise to maintain my health, think beautiful thoughts and live a joyous life. I promise to manifest good things for me and mine and live in abundance all through the year.

What will YOU promise YOURSELF? I'd love to know, if you care to share. Just leave your comments and it will be my delight to peruse them. Remember, I promised myself to have FUN, didn't I? wink/grin

Happy New Year, World!

Connie Baum