Do you like new things?
There was a time when I didn’t like to wear clothes that were immediately new; though, I can’t say I ever knew another girl who didn’t!
I love new things now. I’m wearing my new purple, fringed shawl, even though the rest of my outfit could use an upgrade to go with the wrap.
Moments ago, I made a Dutch oven of refried bean soup to take to a potluck later today. I used two new kitchen tools I received for Christmas: a mincer (to take the roughly chopped onions and garlic down to smithereens) and a mortar and pestle (to convert cumin seed into cumin powder). If you’re a cook, you know how much more fun great tools, especially new, can make an otherwise big job.
Then there are ways to make old things seem new, like the hours and hours I spent clearing my desk and cleaning my office before Christmas. Keeping it that way is a separate challenge, but having it well-organized and gleaming reminds me how much I enjoy working in it when I do not feel overwhelmed.
That may be the greatest gift of newness: release of whelm! Some, but not all, old, worn out, run down, dusty things become oppressive, like a vehicle that’s always breaking down. New things carry hope:
- hope you’ll look sharp in your new duds
- hope people will delight in your cooking for them (with new tools)
- hope business will go better today
Every new thing brings with it a blank slate. Like mini-new-years all year long. A new pen. A new pad. A new page on the calendar. A new outfit that lets you be a new you.
Most of all, new surroundings, even if in the same location, let us reinvent ourselves just a little. Thus we grow. Supported by new things, new tools, new toys, new friends, new clothes, new cleanness, new file folders…
What would happen if with every newness that comes into our lives this next year, we consider how we can capitalize on it? How can we step up mentally, physically and emotionally and let this new thing give us the boost the newness commitment takes?