My major New Year’s weekend activity is cleaning the house. Although I know I am paying to heat the outdoors, I open all the windows for a cross-breeze. The sky is overcast but the air, fresh and clear, feels healthy.
Shaking out the bedquilt, scrubbing the shower tiles, sweeping the front stoop, paying end of year bills—nothing is particularly eventful but everything is worthy of attention.
This brings to mind the celebrations of the past. Some years we walked through Boston Common to watch the fireworks light up the city and sky, then watched the costumed revelers in the First Night Parade, a medieval spectacle with flags and jesters and life-size marionettes.
When we moved into this house in 2003, we began a tradition of our own, a New Year’s Day book and media swap.
I set out the rules in my invitation:
1. Bring a grocery bag of books, cassette tapes, CDs no longer wanted, board games.
2. No encyclopedias or old college textbooks.
3. You take out a bag filled roughly equal to what you brought in.
How exciting to set up all the books in rows spine-up on the dining room table as guests filtered in during the afternoon. Conversations focused on recommendations and reviews about music and literature. Then some retired to the card tables to play Scrabble, chess, Chinese Checkers, cards.
I provide mimosas and bake a turkey meatloaf but many bring their specialties to share—Rita’s simmering pot of vegetarian chili; Natalie’s freshly made guac with chicken; Wendy’s flan.
Last night I put on my neon safety vest and walked a two mile loop around the neighborhood. The New England landscape is spare in winter, but strings of Christmas lights over shrubbery or lining the eaves lit my way. Why not leave them up for the rest of the wintertime to guide the neighbors on their daily walks, a more frequent activity since most everything else is closed.
Returning home, I enter through the front door recently sanded and painted Aegean Blue by my talented carpenter Frank. After many years of unwelcoming pea soup green, I dared to go bright and bold—sea and sky. But at this critical stage of the pandemic, I don’t expect to open my blue door for anyone, not for friends, family, or book-lovers.
Yet my heart remains open to those of you who, like me, have experienced a year like no other and are trying to handle the dangers, the losses, the abrupt changes, the exhausting demands. I try to keep the generosity, grace and sacrifice shown by so many in the forefront.
Stay with me on that.
Barrie, I love this! Beautiful essay. Great idea you had with the book, CD, etc. swap and potluck back in pre-pandemic days. Absolutely love your blue door! Happy New Year!
Lovely piece, Barrie…………….Love your blue door and the grace of past years carried forward and beyond……….. With good wishes for the year to come, Barbara
Thanks for sharing. You had a fantastic New Year’s tradition of exchanging books. Your newly painted blue door is perfect!
Thanks, Barrie. I love the new blue door, a sign of brightness to welcome in the New Year.
I too miss New Year’s Eve and Day traditions with dear friends. This year we are having take-in from a mom-and-pop Italian restaurant (curbside pick up) and will try and stay up to watch the ball drop on a sadly empty Times Square, although in recent years we haven’t quite made it to midnight.
Here is something I would like to share written by a friend of a friend, named Starhawk, a kind of prayer for the New Year:
My New Year’s Wish, Prayer, Blessing, and Resolution:
May the isolation, fear and loss we have suffered in this past year make us more appreciative of our friends, loved ones and coworkers, and more aware of how vitally we need community.
May the callousness, irresponsibility and corruption we have seen in power holders make us appreciate the value of truth, integrity, and caring in our leaders.
May the barrage of lies, disinformation and conspiracy theories that flood the internet inspire us to hone our critical thinking and strengthen our capacity for good judgement.
May the injustices we have witnessed and suffered deepen our commitment to dismantle systems of oppression.
May the fires, floods, hurricanes and disasters of this last year make us more aware that we are subject to nature’s laws, and more determined to bring us into balance.
May this coming year be a turning point—toward a world of more compassion, more caring, more sharing, more integrity, more courage, more health, more regeneration, and more joy in being agents of justice and renewal!
With you, always! Much love from the Paris family
What a sweet, nostalgic piece. Thank you for your optimistic time past post. You and David are greatly missed, and I write this with confidence that the end of this plague is near. Your essay lightened my heart.
What a beautiful new look front door! Totally bailed the color! I love your idea of swapping out unwanted items we no longer need. Hope this is a wonderful year for you. A year of health, happiness and love. With warmest wishes and big bear hugs. Your friend Magdeld x
Nice post Barrie! I can totally relate, especially your closing. I have been cleaning today too and take my night walks through lovely Beverly Farms.
Hmmm – Aegean Blue somewhat like Taos Blue?
Beautiful piece and beautiful blue door
I was about to eat my last square of Ghirardelli peppermint bark but now there’s no need. Your elegant essay has a sweet freshness about it that will stay with me longer than even one of my favorite treats! Thank you!
Happy New Year Barrie. Wishing you all good things in 2021. Love the blue door.
Happy New Year, Barrie! Love your new blue door! Your New Year’s Day parties sounded really cool. We have friends who do a white elephant party for Hanukkah every year, but I think I’ll suggest your idea to her for (God willing) Hanukkah 2021.
Loved this. So glad you’ve stayed involved with the Poetry Circle. Always look forward to your poems. Here’s hoping for a brighter year to come!
We love the door and the story. Hope we can meet up with you in Lexington or UWS later this new year.
Dear Barrie,
Loved your blue door and the bundle of books, old cassette and board game idea.
Happy New Year and let’s hope for a better year ahead.
Love and kindness from Arizona.
HIya Barrie,
A beautifully written tribute to the close ties that are bound through shared activities in a home, the core of it all. Also to the joys of maintaining and improvising on ones home. I also see it as a declaration that no crisis on earth will stifle this spirit. I was honored to be a witness to the color choice for the front door. It was bold and daring. I briefly had my reservations but you would not be deterred. Victory to the bold, you nailed it ! Whatever my role in this process was, was merely an extension of your artistic vision. LOL; that’s not “laughing out loud” but rather, “Labor of Love”. Frank