In doing research for this post I looked up Janus, and what do you know, January was not named after that two faced dude. Go figure!
He was the god of beginnings, endings, transitions, change, doors, gates, war, peace, you name it. His name was invoked all the time - every time anything started or ended - bam, there he was.
As I have mentioned, I have been reflecting on 2018, which is now in the record books, and planning for 2019. Sometimes I get unsure of which direction to go, but as of right now I am going to sign up for my ASL class which starts next Monday. I have plenty of excuses and reasons not to, but I need to keep learning, and ASL is certainly a challenge.
I have also been trying to clean up around here - that's kind of important and somewhat traditional at the beginning of the year. It is way too easy to allow stuff to accumulate without noticing how bad it is getting. Understand, I moved just a few years ago, so I went through all of my stuff and tried to make good decisions about what to keep and what to toss. But I keep making stuff so my house is once again full. In order to get a handle on the situation I thought about Marie Kondo's work - The Magic of Tidying Up, but the thought of buying another book that would just clutter my book shelves was off-putting, so I watched her stupid Netflix series. What a crock that show is. Wait, did I just review it? Huh. Anyway, she does have some good ideas about dealing with hoarding - the spark joy thing is interesting. But praying to a house or waking up books - not so much. I did like the concept of keeping items you want to take into the future with you - that's a good one. Reviewing the past to see what is important to you is good, too. We are, to some degree, our histories, so paying attention to what got us here has value. Focusing on what we want to go forward with works for me, too. People deal with a lot of stuff, every kind of stuff, in life, and sorting it out is good.
Around here Hoppin' John is traditionally served to welcome the new year. I don't eat beans, rice or bacon, so that is right out. I did fix up a big ol' mess of sweet taters for lunch, so when the traditions of others fail you, make your own:
I do miss corn bread, but you know what they say, ain't nobody makes corn bread as good as momma used to make. So no cornbread for me.
