On With The New

I kind of have that deflated feeling that you get when the holidays are over. The decorations are coming down, the fridge and bank accounts are emptied out, the bad eating habits are catching up, the visitors and all the excuses for not working are going home again. I'm tired and kind of getting a cold but it's still time to get serious here. The good thing though is that beyond the debris of the holiday stretches out a new year, clean and clear and fresh and waiting for something wonderful to be made of it.

Having visitors here made me do lots of fun L.A. things that I don't usually do. I went to the La Brea tar pits in the heart of Hollywood to see the amazing Columbian mammoths and dire wolves and sabertooth cat bones from the L.A. basin's pre-human days, preserved in the molten asphalt, now surrounded by seas of asphalt in another form. We went out for ramen and saw a movie and many famous handprints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. On New Year's Eve day I took my parents up to the Getty museum in the hills above L.A. It's an amazing place. There is an incredible art collection there and entrance to the exhibits is free but I never get to them because I'm so enraptured by the experience of riding the monorail up the hill from the parking lot and walking through the massive, monumental, fountain filled courtyards and gardens with views of the L.A. basin from the towering, snow covered Sierra Nevada in the east across the sea of humanity to the glittering coast with mountainous islands off shore. It really makes me forgive the traffic and the porn and the overzealous plastic surgeons and appreciate this city. The fact that Maine is now covered with a couple of feet of snow and bitterly cold helps with that too.

I had a nice conversation with the checkout guy at Trader Joe's today. It went something like this:
Him: How was your New Year?
Me: Great!
Him: That's so great, glad to hear it! This was a good one, huh? What did you do?
Me: Oh, not much. Made pizza, watched a movie, went to a fun brunch party the next morning.
Him: That's great! I love pizza and movies and brunch parties. Homemade pizza's the best! (They must train them to be extra nice and cheerful at Trader Joe's, and this guy was admittedly above and beyond the call of duty. Kind of like a human golden retriever.)
Me: Yeah, it was fun. I've just got a good feeling about this year.
Him: ME TOO! man, me too. More this year than any other I can remember.
Me: Yeah, me too. I don't know why.
Him: Yeah, huh.(laughs) The facts don't look that great, but I'm just feeling good about it!
Me: Allright! That's the first step, huh?
Him: Happy 2010!
Me: Yeah, Happy 2010!

Happy 2010 to you! Happy 2010 to me. I hope for this year to bring me more strength and acceptance and accomplishment and joy and compassion and wholeness. I hope for it to bring us all more compassion, more justice, more common sense and resourcefulness, and more hopeful visions for the future.