Oh, Kaye! and Neil Gaiman wish you all a Happy New Year

After a computer hard drive crash and attempts to migrate to a new laptop while hoping and praying for a retrieval of data (successful! well, mostly successful . . .), I was having all the issues you might expect.

What I didn't expect was for Blogger to get mad at me and refuse to cooperate.

It was enough to send a girl right over the edge.


Almost.


But, as usual, the Jungle Red women were there to lend a helping hand in posting this for me in case I wasn't able to sort out the issues, which I think I've now done (keeping those fingers crossed!).

That little act of friendship is indicative of all that I love about being a small part of this Jungle Red community.

With that in mind, I want to share, once again, as I have in the past, these words from one of the most magical authors on God's green's earth.

Everyone is familiar with Neil Gaiman's famous words that many of us post and repost every year to bring in the New Year.  And with good reason.  

They're perfect and they're timeless.  

Many of us have come to hope for new words of wisdom from Mr. Gaiman in the same vein each and every New Year's Eve.

It doesn't always happen, but this year it did.

Hooray!

So without further ado, enjoy, once again,  the magic of Mr. Gaiman, lifted in part and without apology, directly from his post at his on-line journal -  http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2014/12/new-years-wishes-and-gifts.html


WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2014

New Year's Wishes and Gifts

POSTED BY NEIL GAIMAN AT 4:14 PM


An old year ends, and takes with it people and sorrows and joys and memories, and a new one is on it way.

A New Year's Gift, for anyone who missed it:



Fifteen Years 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 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.


Half a decade ago, I wrote:
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.


And here, from 2012 the last wish I posted, terrified but trying to be brave, from backstage at a concert:

It's a New Year and with it comes a fresh opportunity to shape our world.

So this is my wish, a wish for me as much as it is a wish for you: in the world to come, let us be brave – let us walk into the dark without fear, and step into the unknown with smiles on our faces, even if we're faking them.

And whatever happens to us, whatever we make, whatever we learn, let us take joy in it. We can find joy in the world if it's joy we're looking for, we can take joy in the act of creation.

So that is my wish for you, and for me. Bravery and joy.

...

I meant, and mean them all. I wasn't going to write a new one this year. But...

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."


All that from Neil Gaiman.

And from me?  Ditto what he said.

Happy New Year, Reds!!!!!!

Be kind to yourselves.