There was a blue moon last night, the second full moon in a single calendar month and on New Year’s Eve - the start of a new decade. Maybe it was a sign.New Year is more about Old Year for me - my time to say: so long, cheerio, chin-chin, ciao, goodbye, later, good riddance, expletive-off. For me New Year is about seeing out and off the old year - welcoming the New is a secondary thing.
Now I’m not saying that I want to be rid of all Old Years – some of them have been great and kind and I didn’t want to let them go – but some of them… well, some of them have been less than great and if I’m honest 2009 has been one of those. Fortunately though I’m a creature of ritual and New Year’s Eve is one of my big ritual times, so I know how to deal with the change, I know how to protect myself.
Since my mid-teens I have been writing notes about the old year and sending them away into the New Year hoping that the New Year will read them and listen. I have sent notes out to sea in bottles, made paper aeroplanes of them and flown them from tall towers, blown them away on kites (cutting the string to set them free), often I’ve burnt them – in the fireplaces of several houses, in a Chinese brass bowl, on a bonfire high on the Chiltern Hills. I’ve written in the sand for the tide to wash my plea/message/.prayer away, on my hand in blood (washing it away with coal tar soap on the stroke of midnight), on a steamy windowpane, in a cigar box buried under a yew tree at St. Mary’s Church, in the air with a sparkler, on a stick thrown from Pooh Stick Bridge down into the dark and rushing river…
And this time I am sending my message out of the Old and into the New on a rocket - up into the air and aimed at the Blue Moon.
Goodbye
2009
Up into the
dark you go
and I don’t
mind you
so-and-so!
As the message says ‘Goodbye 2009’ and I don’t mind you going you so-and-so. The rest of my thoughts, failures, hopes, and wishes are wrapped around the stick and kept on with an elastic band (what else?). Of course they are strictly private, a secret between me and 2010.
I really hope that the New Year is listening.
Jamie Morden commented Facebook "A blue moon and a New Year rocket...":
ReplyDelete"What a unique way of dealing with past issues etc Though for myself i'd need a sheet of Billboard paper to write it on and would need to wrap it around the Shuttle!
All the best and let's hope it's a happy new year :-)"
Glynne T Kirkham commented Facebook "A blue moon and a New Year rocket...":
ReplyDelete"What a great way to see out the year. There were quite a few Chinese lanterns set off floating into the nights sky last night. It looked amazing. I'm going to try and get hold of one and write a little messages in it. I know it's a bit late but it sounds theraputic. "