We brought in the New Year in a low-key way with dear friends. We sat around a table laden with a wild miscellany of food since we all brought whatever we wished, I made corn and cheese souffle and my husband made his signature salmon mousse, and we ate deviled eggs and sugared nuts and bruschetta and artichoke spinach dip and pepper jelly cheese and drank lots of Prosecco and the conversation went wherever and I looked around the table and thought how much I enjoy these people and I was thankful that this wouldn't be one of those years of wandering haunted through the rooms of my house, thinking we should have planned something, sure the rest of the world knew to plan something and now we would be slipping across the boundary of midnight without the sweet scaffolding of other souls, free falling into the new year without a plan. There are years like that, but this wasn't one of them. I looked around the table at all these people I have grown to love and I thought, we have watched our children grow up and away from us, watched them head out into the night so sure of what they know, angled like compasses towards their friends and leaving us each other. And as we raised our glasses at midnight and sang an off-key Auld Lang Syne I was grateful to take my cup of kindness with these friends and I wished silently that next year we might do this again in one of our homes, because it was so easy with them and I felt accompanied and accounted for and it was really sort of perfect.
Damn, girl. I am glad one of us knew what to do to bring in the New Years.
ReplyDelete"...the sweet scaffolding of other souls..." Your words move me.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had the perfect evening to usher in the New Year. I am glad for you, sweet one.
Hugs,
Debbie
Happy New Year and Best wishes for 2011.
ReplyDeleteI rang in the new year sad and hopeless, but today I awake and realize that the cards are in my hands.
Glad you had such a lovely time. Thanks for sharing.
Miss A.
Sounds like a great way to bring in the New Year! May 2011 fulfill all its hopes and promises.
ReplyDeleteMs. Moon, I don't always know! but this new years eve held some sweetness and grace.
ReplyDeleteDebra W, thanks for the kind comment and I hope this year is so good for you and those you love.
Miss A, one of our friends said "We spend our whole lives trying to figure out this night," and it rang so true to me. We put so much pressure on ourselves over what new years eve night is "supposed" to be. Well, now it is over and I am glad your cards are again in plain view. May you have a great year!
Deborah, I wish the same for you. I hope the holidays were wonderful for you and Ron. Love.
All good wishes to you, Angella, for a rich and full 2011. You are so open to the world, I can't help but believe it will be wonderful. Melissa
ReplyDeleteMelissa, I am really glad to have connected with you in 2010 and look forward to a new year that includes you in my life. May it be filled with everything that fills you with happiness and love.
ReplyDeleteI was with in spirit at the table , Angella.
ReplyDeleteI am truly grateful to have connected with you .
Your writing, your eye for beauty and depth and the human spirit leaves me breathless and humbled and inspired.
I didn't make plans, as my husband and a daughter are away for a soccer showcase tournament, but it was remarkable to wish my children Happy New Year as they all headed out to be with friends, knowing that I would enjoy a glass of wine, and some music and a quiet night of gratitude and true peace of soul at long last.
love to you,
deb
dear deb, your new year's eve sounds like pure peace. Sometimes there is nothing better than time alone, knowing that we are not in fact alone, that our loved ones will be arriving back home to us later. Then we can hear ourselves think, and tune in to all that is good.
ReplyDeleteI am grateful to know you. it is a blessing, nothing less.
Angella Lister, I just love your writing...so glad I found you and I love that picture of you...you remind me of some girls I knew at St. Mary of the Woods College that were from the Virgin Islands. I loved those girls. I wonder what they are doing now and if they write as well as you do.
ReplyDeleteKim, thank you for the kind comment about the writing. maybe all that classical British education we got paid off. All that study of the romantic poets! One of my favorite Caribbean writers is Derek Walcott of St. Lucia, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. i cannot even begin to approach such company. but I think you would enjoy Walcott's poetry. My favorite is his book, Another Life, in case you're interested.
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