Friday, January 1, 2021

Make the Most of a Brand New Year

    Good morning! Happy 2021. Well, so far anyway. As for the rest of the year, well, we'll see. A new president, almost certainly, with that 0.1 percent doubt half the story of what we've been through. The same old COVID, but we're working on it. Turning the corner, maybe, soon.
     Did you have a fun New Year's Eve? We really did, at the Steinberg household. Both boys home, little hot dogs wrapped in crescent dough, a relic of the 50s, passed from my parents, through me, to the next generation. Sorry about that. It's only one night. Watched "Soul," which is truly excellent. I highly recommend it.
     Now to the year ahead. The village of Northbrook asked me to write something for their Northbrook Voice magazine about starting the new year afresh, and I came up with this:

     The black aluminum front screen door, battered and completely wrong for our 110- year old farmhouse? The one I nevertheless walked through for 20 years? After looking around for a replacement and finding nothing suitable, I took what was for me a dramatic step: unscrewed the thing and just threw it away.
     "There are no new beginnings," the poet Kae Tempest says. "Until everybody sees that the old ways need to end."
     Welcome to 2021. It’s a safe bet that this year will be better than the last—on a grand scale.
     But what about your life? What are you going to do to better yourself? A single digit changing on the calendar can be powerful inspiration.
     "It's very motivating for a lot of people," said Marilyn Fettner, a Northbrook life coach. "It’s a fresh start, especially this year. Midway through the year, people were saying, 'I just want 2020 to be over.' It's been such a difficult year. People want a clean slate, mentally, an opportunity to say, 'Okay, here are the things I've been wanting to do.’"

To continue reading, click here (and turn to page FIVE).

2 comments:

  1. Happy New Year to our esteemed host and my fellow followers! I look forward to your musings and responses.

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  2. The Activity Center is really impressive. Here in my neighborhood a few years ago there was a lot at the corner of 2 main streets that was dedicated to the storage of huge heaps of salt for deicing city streets. I was excited to hear that the YMCA wanted to build a facility there, but ultimately disappointed as there was strong opposition to such and the space ended up with a humongous old people's home, probably more suitable for me then and now, but a disappointment nonetheless. Glad that Northbrook is more enlightened. Happy 2021 to all.

    john

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