“Should old acquaintance be forgot” and never brought to mind. Auld Lang Syne! For years I would hear this song and for the most part, never knew what it meant, so I did some research, and goodness, it is really something. The point is that the phrase “auld lang syne” is not recognizable to English speakers because it is not an English phrase. Translated literally it means “old long since,” but the meaning is more like “old times” or “the olden days.” Is it even possible to put the old behind you and focus on the new?
Will I be able to put 2020 behind and face 2021 with hope and enthusiasm? I shared a video of Mariah Carey singing “Auld Lang Syne“. I am playing it over and over and sure her voice and the progression is good, but am I buying into the concept? I decided to bring in the New Year attending a church service, I heard persons singing and giving testimonies, I even heard some really good sermons and I said sermons because I heard from several services and the theme of the sermons were all very similar.
All the presenters were good, but I felt sad in my heart. I wanted to feel like I felt when I was young and was hopping from place to place, watching people celebrate the new year, the countdown to another year, food and to have my favourite drink, (clear throat) a bottle of cold Malta. I wanted to listen to music as loud as ever and to break a sweat after a church service, see I like dancing, it doesn’t matter the music. This year however it was different, I know we are in the middle of a pandemic and we are better served with distancing from each other.
New Year’s morning—
everything is in blossom!
I feel about average.
I wanted 2021 to find my feeling great! I wanted a miracle, but when I went on the road to go see my parents, we were still wearing a mask, when I stopped at the gas station, the security guard took my temperature and pointed me to the sanitizer machine, without saying a word, he was saying with his eyes, do it or you do not enter here, I did it, no fight, even though I had done it a minute before exiting the car.
Why do I feel like such a hypocrite when I send Happy New Year to my friends and family? I am not sure it is going to be such a happy year at all, but I should be able to hope for a happy new year.
When I was exiting the store a little boy looked very puzzled at me, then his question to me was, “Are you Santa?” I thought this was funny, why would he ask such a question?
Asked how old he was
the boy in the new kimono
stretched out all five fingers.
He could be Chinese or Japanese, I am not sure of the difference but his accent was Jamaican. It is the beard.
Happy New Year!
I had a smile on my face when I went back in the car. Okay, I get it, look for hope in the gift of life, the leafs going back and forth in the wind, the smile I got from my mother when she saw me come visit her, how chatty my father is when we talk about the soon coming of Jesus, God’s provision of my wonderful wife, my church family, getting a call from my cousin today and us reminding each other of our love for each other, hearing my son pray a special prayer for my mother and the hope that she will be healed in 2021, watching people going back and forth and hurrying to beat a curfew, hearing from my Aunt Sonia after not talking for months, getting a Happy New Year from clients, reminding me of how important I am to them, rushing home to my family after visiting my parents, knowing that there is food prepared for my hungry stomach, thankful that my siblings and their families are doing fine, seeing how God has been providing through a difficult year and continue to provide.
It is hard for me to smile, but there are enough reasons to give thanks. I can choose to be thankful, it is difficult, my general disposition is melancholic, but I am not a slave to definitions, so I will say it and mean it… Happy New Year and all the best for 2021. Auld Lang Syne!
