01/01/2026
On looking back to turn forward…
In a spurt of New Year’s Day enthusiasm for returning my home office to its non-seasonal purposes - for practices of all sorts, except present wrapping - I sifted through my many notebooks.
This tiny notebook is many years old, and I never filled out the Name and Reward $ portion at the front. I did, however, write this:
“the amusing thing about declaring a reward prior to the writing of this book is that you need to estimate the value before you’ve surmised its worth. You cannot possibly know how valuable something is to you, cannot contemplate what you would do in its absence, until you are accustomed to its presence. Like life perspective before and after children, their presence must be felt before their loss can be imagined. Of course, waiting until the script fills the pages to assign a value will offer ample opportunity to part with an increasingly valuable item. You could choose to hedge your bets and fill it solely with grocery lists, in which case you should price its reward less than the initial cost because you’ve devalued it for its future owner who does not require eggs, cream, fennel, grapefruit and lettuce from the shop. If you fill it with some extraordinary insights on achieving and maintaining life satisfaction, you may want the reward to be owed to you, since the finder will be in your debt. If the work - non fiction or a brilliant tale - is ready or near published, consider including a note about royalties.”
The entry made me smile - an unexpected delight, long forgotten, and purely joyful.
As we so often and so easily identify what we don’t want in our lives anymore, my hope is that you take some time to reflect on 2025 and notice what you’re proud of, what brought you ease, and what brought you joy. See and appreciate the goodness you were a part of - because not everything needs to go out with the old and in with the new. Some things are worth keeping.
