Jolene Playlist #5

Happy Now Year!
(Oh No! Not another variant!)

I have never found the process of weighing the happiness scales of the past year on a single day at the tip of December particularly accurate or helpful.

Depending on how I feel on December 31st (Happy Birthday Edit!) I either look forward to the year ahead with a sense of hope and excitement or doom and gloom. It has nothing to do with taking stock of all the things gained and lost, the friendships forged, the dearly departed, the inevitable highs and lows, the changes of pace or direction, the risks we took, the chances that got away, love, money, travels, experiences, personal growth and the books piling up on the side of the bed faster than one can read them...

A year is too big, too clunky, too lumpy.

For me happiness lives in the little things, the little moments, the ones that never make it on the Happiness scales of the pedestrian "Happy New Year" and all its quirky variants...

A walk, a swim, sun on face, puddles, a page, a phrase, a word, rain on face, a fruit, a tune, a touch, a cup, an act, a pebble, an image, a dish, a wave, a book, sobriety, health, hoovering, planting, gathering, hugging, dreaming, a breeze, a scent, a winning lottery ticket.....(you get it)

Happiness to me is a fraction of a second in a day where everything in you hums in that rare unexpected apotheosis.... these are the elusive moments I tune into, slithers of time I learn to recognise and make a point of telling myself: "I m happy right now" and be in that moment for as long as it lasts, often not long enough, like a sneeze or a petite mort.

I will continue to cultivate this sense of nowness rather than newness this year and watch the sun rise as many times as possible.

But for now while pointlessly trying to tame the Bronco of time, the world is in dire need of out of control dancing and contagious loving.

So we made a playlist....

Happy Now Year!