Another New Year's Eve

 

Once upon a time, New Year’s Eve was a night for parties.  We never dreamed of going to bed before ringing in the new year, usually with friends.  Food and games, conversation and laughter, fireworks and plans for the new year, all shared with love.  Hundreds of games of Trivial Pursuit and Shanghai Rummy took place, stories and old jokes made us laugh or groan,  and we toasted the new year with champagne and beer.

Now I find myself just as happy to stay home with my feet up in front of the fire, resting from Christmas and the surrounding mayhem and thinking.  Last year at this time, I was not in a good mood.  I had been dealing for a couple of months with one disaster after another, which left me with a depleted bank account and a dim view of the next month or two to come.  I had just encountered truck repairs, a hot water heater to replace, and a dishwasher that fell victim to a dog trying to catch a mouse and, in the process, pulling all the wiring out of the bottom.  I had a mysterious water leak to the tune of several hundred dollars and the resulting bill to fix the leak which was finally located at a remote spot behind the barn.  Then I had an invasion of rats in the crawl space under my bathrooms, which led to replacement of all the plumbing in that area.  Who knew that a rat could, or would, gnaw through PVC pipe?  I had grown afraid to even utter the words, “What else can go wrong?”  Little did I know but that a mouse was busy working on the drain hose on the new dishwasher and I would soon be faced with another leak in the kitchen and another repair bill.  My seventieth birthday was looming. Oh, and did I mention the root canal scheduled right after the new year? Maybe 2023 wasn’t going to be something to look forward to either.

I didn’t know it last New Year’s Eve, but my luck was about to change. Just a few days into the new year, a door I had opened at least two decades ago led me down a path I had not seen before now and I got a chance to write some magazine articles about people and their horses, totally out of the blue.  At first it sounded like a one-time deal, but it turned out to be a regular thing, leading to a busy year of doing just what I always wanted to do.  Several dozen interviews and stories later, I’m starting on another year of being a paid feature writer.  I have been able to reconnect with some old friends and acquaintances and get to know some people I hadn’t known before, when I was directly involved in the horse world.  I’ve had to stretch my writing muscles, get comfortable doing interviews on the phone and figure out how to ask the questions I needed to ask. And deadlines – I haven’t worked with deadlines in a very long time!  Sometimes I felt out of my comfort zone and often out of my depth, but I think I have figured out a rhythm that works for me.

Just about the same time my first batch of articles appeared, my book arrived.  I had been working on it for a couple of months, gathering some of my earlier blog posts and putting them in book form.  Opening that first box of books with my name right there on the cover was a thrill.  It just goes to show you that you can’t give up on your dreams, even if they don’t come true when you think they will.  My name on a book cover was just one of the firsts I experienced this year.  I also made jelly for the first time in my life and the best thing about that experience was that I got a pretty good story out of it!

I was able to enjoy some of the best music events of my entire life in 2023, some alone and some with my concert buddies.  While I love music and keep it going most of the time at home and in the truck, there is nothing like live music to speak to your soul.  I’ve met some interesting people –sitting next to a stranger for three hours who doesn’t feel at all like a stranger because you share something as intimate as a love for the same music.  There was the man from Michigan, who drove all the way to Tennessee because he loved John Prine.  There was the 84-year-old couple from Louisiana who drove 9 hours to Nashville because they had never been to the Opry.  There was the young lady who had just moved to Nashville and was soaking in all the shows and learning about new venues to try.  I met my favorite band during a three-day immersion in their new music, shared a little conversation with them, and found out that, yes, they are just as nice as they seem. 

I was invited to attend a gala honoring my great aunt and celebrating the release of a film about her life and career in country music.  Other than stressing a little over finding the right clothes to wear, it was a special night, and I was reminded again of what a great woman she was as person after person talked about what they loved about her and how she had influenced their lives.  Watching the film itself brought back a flood of memories and made me remember that sometimes things don’t happen they way you expect, but that sometimes they can be even better than you planned.  And it gave me new determination to honor my talents by using them more freely.

There were new friends, losses and disappointments, great moments and darker moments, days full of sunshine and bird song, and a few days of dark clouds and darker nights.  But always there was laughter shared with friends, my dogs to lift my spirits and always my writing to keep me sane.  There were surprises, like the two litters of puppies that came into my life, allowing me to meet some new friends. On the other end of the scale, I lost the horse of my heart, saying goodbye to Bullet, who gave me 30 years of happiness and took me places I never dreamed I would go.  I will cherish those memories forever and I know he is running in pastures of lush grass and rolling on deep sandy riverbanks.  Surely someone is feeding him carrots and ice cubes and giving him hugs.

2023 taught me several things, or perhaps just reminded me of what I already knew.  It’s never too late to learn new things, or to relearn lessons you thought you had forgotten.  Sometimes you have to take a leap, having faith that you can do things you thought were in the past. Old friends will always be there to prop you up and new friends are the frosting on the cake.  Dogs will never let you down, keeping your feet and your heart warm on long dark nights.  And you never know what surprises or adventures are waiting just around the bend.  Happy New Year to all my friends and readers – I can’t wait to see what comes next!