I’ve fulfilled the most important of my New Year obligations. I’ve eaten all the holiday chocolates so we can start 2023 eating healthy. Sure, it made me a little speedy for a few days, but that helped me complete another first-of-the-year task—making Happy New Year cards to send to friends/family. This task wouldn’t have existed here in January if I’d gotten around to making Christmas/Solstice cards in December, but I didn’t. And I really needed all the chocolate I could get my hands on because my design for this year required multiple steps.
First I had to write a greeting with passable calligraphy. Luckily, my standards for my own calligraphy are not high or I’d still be working at it. I had to carve and print multiple linoleum blocks and slice construction paper into one inch strips with the paper cutter. There was some surprisingly tricky paper folding, and I had to squeeze out blobs of rubbery glue to hold miniscule googly eyes. And after several days of this, there was still the signing and addressing of envelopes. The chocolate ran out before the project, but I made it.
But I felt a little flat after I slid all the stamped cards through the mail slot at the post office.
Then a friend saved me. He sent a video of a Jesse Jackson speech from 1988. Hopeful, uplifting, inspiring words! and so welcome in this cynical political climate.
So, my top New Year’s resolution is to maintain hope and encourage some smiles. Maybe my silly cards do both.