"Oh, Kaye!" - A New Year's Wish from Me and Neil Gaiman

Happy New Year, Reds!!!

I hope everyone had a good holiday season, and I wish you all a Happy 2013. 

It was a busy holiday for us.  Christmas here in Boone with my mom, then a long drive to Birmingham for Christmas with Don's family, and then a drive to Meridian to our nephew's wedding and all the accompanying wedding festivities.  Perfect!  Everything was lovely and perfect.

And now it's back to reality - no more Santa for a whole year, no more magical weddings for a while.  But I want you to know one thing.  I received Christmas cards from some of you and they touched my heart.  Reine, YOU made me cry - but in a good way, so thank you.  I had planned on sending cards, but it was one of those things that didn't go as planned, but you were all in my heart.

I hope 2013 is a year of joy and a year of peace for each of you.



Before I say one more word though, I need to tell you my buddy Margaret Maron, is at Meanderings and Muses today so run by there and say "Hey!"

Now - - - this is one of the things that, to me, keeps "magic" alive.  Writing as perfect as this.

From Neil Gaiman's Journal -

Lifted in total from right here: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/12/my-new-year-wish.html

Because it is one of my favorite pieces of writing ever.  Most of you are already familiar with it, but it's just one of those pieces that will touch us each time we read it, I think.


They're Mr. Gaiman's words, but they're my wish for all of you also.

"My New Year Wish

A decade ago, I wrote:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

And almost half a decade ago I said,

...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it's this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever."


This is something I reread, without fail, every year at the beginning of the new year.  It thrills me as much each reading as it did the first time I read it.

It fills me with hope.  With confidence.  And determination.


How 'bout you, Reds - is there a particular piece of prose or poetry that you read for inspiration? For the magic it brings you?  Do you have a particular favorite time for reading it?