Ringing in the New by Elaine Langford

 

How do you celebrate the New Year? Are you a Hogmanay party person that wrings every second out of December before considering what resolutions to make? Maybe you are New Year focussed, waking brightly on the first morning of January with your good intentions already pinned on the fridge?  

We’re definitely not party people, but neither do we heartily skip into January. This was especially true the December we moved to a house that was next door to a Rugby Club. On New Year’s Eve we went to bed at 10pm weary from unpacking, only to be woken by fireworks at midnight. We lifted our heads from the deep dents in our pillows to emit a reluctant, ‘Happy New Year’, and went back to sleep. So much for a bright new start.

If you’ve read my previous blogs about planning routes, picking priorities, mining motivation or rearranging popcorn, you’ll know my writing wasn’t very voluminous in 2024. Due to fatigue, stress and a chaotic neurodiverse brain, every month it felt like I was squeezing out everything I needed to do at the last minute. A bit like our unexpected midnight firework greeting.

After my December post, about advent being a time of waiting, I felt I had given myself permission to stop pushing and reflect. With a slight diversion of frantic preparations to buy and send Christmas presents to family in Scotland, I began to find nuggets of hope that 2025 could be different. Firstly, I took comfort in that although I wasn’t very prolific in my own blogs, I had posted here each month since August. Later, when my extended festive leave restored more of that elusive energy, I could acknowledge that among many frustrating medical appointments, some had been very helpful. Slowly, I felt less negative and was able to consider how to make 2025 more productive than 2024.

I even felt able to be more active and intentional in the waiting. I made note of some regular ACW writing group events due in 2025 in my calendar. Hopefully I could make time to attend, rather than be surprised when email or social media notifications popped up a few days before and I saw they clash with other plans. I even worked out when Lent starts (For information, Shrove Tue is 4 March 2025).

And, yes, I even review the infamous Commission I wrote myself when I started as a freelance writer. Some parts felt relevant for any phase of my writing, but I realised I’m still not ready to rewrite this – and that’s okay. Instead, I drew my usual December mind map of all the topics I felt should write about and considered the genres or formats to cover. It looked very similar to the one I drew in 2023 that never transpired. For this to be a commission, I accepted I needed to spend time actively and intentionally praying and listening for where God wants me to focus. After all, I had not planned to write these blogs in 2023. The thought had crossed my mind, so when I heard they needed some stand-in posters, I thought I’d give it a try. I’d never had thought how important that opportunity was to change how I felt about my year.

My dream is to find my voice as a topical poet or a comedy writer. I know I will need to spend time learning and developing those forms. However, I also need to be open to what unexpected firework display that God may bring my way when I’m not paying attention.

Many of us hope for a new year to be a new start, but often we can be too ambitious with the changes we want to make. Sometimes we just need to know that we can put events behind us to enable us to wait more actively and intentionally. However you spent the last week of December or the first few days of January, may God lead you into 2025 gently, or with a bang, so you may find your voice as a writer commisioned by God. 

PS Check out Allison Symes' post on 29 December for more ideas on how to approach 2025 as a writer

PPS I wrote a New Year poem in 2022 on my Poetry Puddles blog that still feels relevant for me, though I know it realy needs to be edited and refined to be complete.

 

Elaine Langford is an unexpected More Than Writers blogger and resolves to be more grateful when God awakens her writing with opportunities and ideas, even if they arrive in the middle of the night. 

She also hosts two blogs, Faith Bites and Poetry Puddles, that she resolves to be more attentive to in 2025.