I celebrate New Year 5 times every year.     I believe you can’t have too many New Years. It’s like having too many people to love in your life. There’s no such thing as too many.

I love all 5, I love the feeling of ALL fresh new starts, whether it’s a new day or year.

The first New Years I celebrate is January 1.  It’s probably obvious to you why I celebrate this one, but I think the others might not be.

I started celebrating Chinese New Year, which comes around later in January and often in February, when I went to Singapore and discovered how splendidly colorful and exuberant this celebration is.  I’m lucky too because San Francisco has the largest Chinese population outside China and the celebration here is extraordinary.

I’m in awe of Spring.  Spring always makes me feel like I’m beginning a new life.  Seeing all the new green growth on trees and ivy, seeing buds on naked trees and then canopies of leaves, seeing glorious flowers burst forth in my and all my neighbors’ yards and rose gardens.  It’s just a miracle.  How does this magic ever happen?

I always get the feeling of a great burden lifting I didn’t even know was there, like a part of me had died and I didn’t realize it until I saw the world around me coming to life and something came back to life in me too.  I experience inexpressible joy.

I started celebrating July 4^th as a new year over 20 years ago when I left Philadelphia.  I was starting a new life.  I stored all my stuff (not much) at my parents, bought a blue MGB convertible sports car, put the top down and spent 3 months driving around the country looking for where I wanted to live.  It was thrilling to drive away into a big adventure with fireworks in the sky.

For some reason I’ve made other major life changes on July 4^th.   I made so many of these changes on the 4^th, that I started to think of it as my own personal new year.

Which brings me to today.  I have another personal new year in the Fall.

From the time I was little I’ve experienced a PROFOUND feeling of a brand new start at the beginning of each new school year.

New sharpened pencils, new outfits, new notebooks, new teachers, new classes, new subjects.  Sometimes even new schools and new friends.

With Fall I always have this feeling of anticipation, something exciting and new about to start, anticipation of new opportunity, full of hope, promise, possible achievement.

Does Fall ever make you feel that way?

I start to get this excited Fall New Year feeling the first day it SMELLS like Fall.  (I do get excited about little things.)  Have you ever noticed how every season has its own smells?

Every season has its own light too.  There are certain colors and a certain slant of light that tells me a new season is starting.  The photo above is one of my favorite running trails.  The light you see only happens in the Fall.

And today, as I run and breath in cool fresh air, it smells like Fall.  Exhilarating.

Wishing you a happy Fall New Year! May yours be full of new beginnings and promise!

Love,

Ingrid