Let Us Celebrate
- TheBubblyGal
- Dec 9, 2023
- 2 min read
It is the time of the year again. Colourful lights sparkle while cheery old tunes play. The ambience is always warm and cosy, even though there is no winter here to snuggle. People gather, over nice meals and drinks, to commemorate the passing of another year. How special has this year been, apart from the difference of a number?
Social media and apps are prompting us to post summaries of automatically-generated memories of 2023. There seems to be no need to do your own recollection, just one click away to an effortless summary fo your own life. I have quite some moments music-making this year, nice travels, wining and dining too. I have accomplished some learning of Spanish on Duolingo. I have seen some friends more often than others. A year goes by in a flash, easily encapsulated in a 30s reel.
While busy attending year-end festivities and indulging even more in the wine and dine, let us take the time to reflect more deeply and personally about the year. The year-end may be a symbolic concept but nonetheless useful as a natural landmark for endings and beginnings, the restart of a new cycle of seasons and life.
2023 has been a roller-coaster for me. I wish I had documented more, of the events, my fleeting thoughts and feelings better, it would make an interesting read. Now I only have vague memories over a skeletal chronology, dry, bare and unreliable. The photos help to bring back some flesh of certain cross-sections in time, though they are only the façades, not capable of telling all that is going on before, after, between and within. The richness of life remained in the moments lived.
With a glass in my hand, the point is not to recall for reminiscence. It is to raise our glasses to all that has transpired in the year, properly remembered or not, which have brought us here, to this point in time.
Let it be —
a toast for having given our best to moments regardless of the outcomes;
a consolation for letting go of any disappointments and pain;
a pardon of mistakes of ourselves and others; and most importantly,
an expression of gratitude to what life has already given us, and will continue to.
Let us celebrate! For the yearend occasions, I am stocking up some bottles of Maxime Blin Son Naturel Optimiste, which would be perfect for pre-dinner parties. I love that it is certified organic, relatively inexpensive and the name is very appropriate for the occasion (yes, I am admittedly quite superficial that way). I am yet to taste it with my guests and looking forward to sharing more about it soon.
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