Worthy New Year Intentions…

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Attribution: Donna CameronIf you are setting intentions for the year ahead, may I suggest starting with Neil Gaiman? On New Year’s Eve, the splendid author and visionary often shares his hopes for the world and its inhabitants in the coming year. He doesn’t do it every year, but often enough that it is something to look forward to and savor, like the very best piece of chocolate—the one you saved for last, and it was just as good as you hoped it would be.

It’s been my own tradition since starting this blog to share one of Mr. Gaiman’s New Year messages as we approach the end of one year and the beginning of another. It’s always hard to choose—each one speaks to me on a different level and touches my heart in a different way. You can read several of them on this page of his website. As 2017 sputters toward closure, I’m sharing the message Gaiman wrote for 2015, with hopes that it will touch you, too:

“Be kind to yourself in the year ahead. Remember to forgive yourself, and to forgive others. It’s too easy to be outraged these days, so much harder to change things, to reach out, to understand. Try to make your time matter: minutes and hours and days and weeks can blow away like dead leaves, with nothing to show but time you spent not quite ever doing things, or time you spent waiting to begin. Meet new people and talk to them. Make new things and show them to people who might enjoy them. Hug too much. Smile too much. And, when you can, love.”

~Neil Gaiman

30 thoughts on “Worthy New Year Intentions…”

  1. Thanks for sharing this, Donna! I’m going to watch to see if Mr/ Gaiman posts this year… I read American Gods and Norse Mythology this summer–neither was a typical read for me, and I found myself really enjoying them both. Looking forward to cracking open his book of essays soon!

    Happy New Year to you and yours…

    Pam

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    • Thanks, Pam, I’m hoping for a 2018 message, too. Many of Gaiman’s books are outside my usual genres, but he continues to surprise me. I love his mastery of the language and his storytelling. If you haven’t read The Ocean at the End of the Lane, that’s another to add to the list. Happy New Year to you, as well.

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  6. I do so love Gaiman. Another quote (from “The View from the Cheap Seats”): “…make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.”

    Happy New Year, Donna; keep making good art! I intend to keep making fantastic mistakes and to break more rules.

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    • Oh, I love that, Kris! Here’s to a new year filled with amazing and glorious mistakes—and lots of ‘em. May 2018 be the year we break lots of rules and make abundant art! Thanks, my friend!

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