DORÉ

I have never been a fan of New Years. But not because of the typical traps, i.e. expectations of the night set too high (you will meet your Prince Charming and kiss at midnight and then never be tempted to cut bangs again) and then reality coming in with pure disappointment (the glitter in your eye makeup you insisted on wearing to be ‘festive’ and ‘cute’ causes a stye and you find yourself alone at midnight with a smile so forced that you terrify even yourself when you catch your own reflection). 

No, I don’t like New Years because of its strict time demarcation. One second it is one year, the next second it is the next year, and all of the Hallmark movies and Instagram memes have taught us to believe every year is going to be OUR YEAR. Nope. Not the last one. Or the one before. Or the one before that. But THIS one. THIS is the year we Deepak Chopra ourselves, become independently wealthy, accrue fans and friends alike and finally settle into that family with 2.5 kids as expected by our elders. 

Whether we like to admit it or not, we all hold our breath at 11:59 and when we don’t feel a seismic shift in the cosmos at 12:01, we all squint our eyes and furrow our brows ever so slightly while the fleeting thought, “wait — if this is my year why don’t I feel anything?” crosses our minds. 

We want to feel something because we enter the New Year with hope for a sense of renewal, of change, of progress.

But that renewal, change, and progress we are all in dire need of exists more in our day to day lives than in our year to year. Because the day to day is what we build upon, while the year to year is what we set our expectations on — and large expectations are fragile at best (ahem, see New Year’s Eve). 

2020 was a shit year in many ways, but I’m not going to fall into the meme trap that the problems of 2020 will vanish at the stroke of midnight on December 31st. Instead I will continue to be hopeful that we will make progress day by day, by doing the difficult and necessary work ahead of us. 

And I hope we start to prioritize the expectations of our individual days over our drawn out years so that we may gain momentum day by day, as oppose to lose it year by year. 

So yes, let’s let out a collective sigh of relief at the stroke of midnight on December 31st, and breath in a collective want for progress.

Like we do each year, we’ll be taking the next few days off to rest and reflect. To begin to lay the groundwork for the days that are ahead. While this holiday is sure to prove more challenging than the holidays can already be, we hope that you’ll take care of yourselves. That you’ll take refuge in your community, be it in person or from afar (please take a break from the Zoom calls though).

We’ll see you on January 4th, with a sense of hope, excitement and determination for lots of wonderful things to come in the world of Doré. As always, thank you for being on the journey with us.