This morning I was reading a little history about the month of January. The history revealed that the Roman calendar only had 10 months, starting with March and ending in December. The days of January and February were dismissed as "unnamed expanses of dark days." Frankly, it kind of sums up how I feel about this time of year. It's darker and colder than most other times of year. The outdoors does not call to me nor does it need to. My garden lays dormant and there is nothing much in the way of outdoor projects that is appealing, save for those few unseasonably warm days we usually get around here. But once that first week of March arrives I am ready to go and have to work hard to hold myself back from uncovering new life in the garden.
The beginning of the year is always a bit of a struggle for me. On the one hand there is a sense of newness and fresh starts. Our social media feeds definitely feed into that narrative and personally I find it a bit overwhelming to feel obligated to recount the last year and find ways to make me feel that the year ahead is anything more than just another day.
We often host a New Year's Eve party which usually creates a sense of excitement about the coming year but this year we opted to stay in with just a couple of friends. It was the perfect way to spend the evening but I admit that leading up to the day I had about five different ideas of what we "should" do to celebrate. This need to do something big is absolutely driven by this prevailing attitude that marking the new year with a bang is necessary when in reality sometimes you just want to be quiet and still and cozy in your home.
This past year has been a really great one for this little business. We hosted a lot of guest vendors, fun workshops, artists whose work has adorned our walls (and in turn your homes), and added two new members to our team. We contributed in quite a few ways to the efforts of our community to help those in need. You have shown up for us and we could not be more grateful. The holiday season in particular revealed just how many of you are doing more and more to support the small businesses that make this country vibrant and thriving.
So in a way, yes. It is just another day but it's also a significant day to reflect on what has been and look forward to what the next part of our lives has in store for us. Maybe it's just more of the same or maybe you feel like marking this moment in time with new exciting commitments. Either way, I hope the year ahead brings magic into your everyday and gives you the spark that drives you to keep being the awesome human you are.
However you choose to spend your New Year's Eve, the dark winter months, the impending year ahead I want you to know that you being here, showing up, opening this email, stopping by the shop to say hi and look at pretty things, sharing what inspires you and just basically being genuine awesome humans means so much to me. It means that everyday I get to be a little part of bringing some joy into your lives. No matter what day of the year it is I am eternally grateful to you for helping make that happen.
