A Happy New Year My daughter and I are spending yet another New Year’s alone. We don’t mind it. I’m a little sick still and she’s never been the social type of teenager. She’s in her room most of the time, drawing. But 2014 was about to pass. The Twilight Zone blared in the background, the dog chased the cats, the cats outran the dog. I begged my daughter to take an evening walk with me through our neighborhood. My guilt trip worked and she reluctantly agreed. We were bundled up with coats, hats and gloves because, for once, its actually cold here. So many of the houses still have their Christmas lights up. The air smelled like burning wood. Cars were parking, guests were arriving for parties that would probably feature lots of champagne and a toast at midnight. I asked my daughter if she felt bad we weren’t going out. She said she didn’t think about New Year’s that way. To her, it has its place in mythology and then explained something to me I didnt understand. I come from a generation that celebrated New Years with cocktail dresses, drunken speeches, smeared lipstick, early morning walks of shame. But we were walking, in the quiet of the night, talking to each other. I’d left my cell phone at home which turned out to be the best thing about it. I realized that the phone, and being connected to the hum of the online world where the conversations never stop, they just change directions and pitch, never really allows a person to just be there, listening to someone else. I tried to imprint the right now of it in my mind. My daughter at 16 spending New Year’s with me. Why did it feel like a moment frozen in time, never to be had again? Because it probably was. It’s been a rough year for my family, my dad and especially my sister Teresa Stone and my mom. It’s a terrible, horrible, beautiful crazy life and it’s all about right this second. And this second. And this. Second. I was so grateful to have that twenty minute walk with my daughter, on the eve of the New Year, which, with this status update, I have just pressed into a memory. Just wanted to share that with you, dear friends, and hope for you a Happy New Year and many small, barely noticeable, ordinary/extraordinary moments.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 03:39:51 +0000
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