By Grace Maselli
In 1850 English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (you know, Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during Queen Victoria’s reign) had something to say about the 
newfangled year and the one just left behind when he wrote Ring Out, Wild Bells. Here are two stanzas that summon attention:
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true…
The year is going, let him go…ring in the true.
Here here, to authenticity and setting free what’s gone. Over. Finito.
And of course, while it’s customary to make a plan, (the proverbial New Year’s Resolution) to bookend 12 months with decisive action—change a trait, slip into a cozy behavior modification, accomplish something, anything—it’s also chill to think about ringing in the true. Whatever that means for you.
Hmmm. Here’s what’s at the top of this writer’s list:
- Spend more time with true blue friends
- Be appreciative. You know, really take account of things that can easily be taken for granted
- Spend as much time as possible in the here and now, the present moment; the vaporous past and future give me agita
- Make art, dream about converting a room into a studio, or find a cheap studio
- Go to art festivals
- Go to parties
- Spend more time in nature
- Go back to St. Augustine
- Do more TBT exchanges with groovy timebankers
- Feel alive
So dear reader, what’s your deal? What’s your True North? How will you ring in the true in 2020? 