Happy New Year!

Good news! It's a new year! Well, at least it is if you are Persian or celebrate Norwuz*. So if 2021 isn't working out for you, and the Chinese New Year in February didn't improve things, try rebooting** and celebrating Norwuz!

And if Norwuz doesn't work, you can try Ugadi (a new year celebrated in some states in India, celebrated at the same time as Gudi Padwa and Cheti Chand, which are other Indian new years) or Navreh (a Kashmiri new year, so also India) next month. And a bunch of other Indian cultures celebrate their new year in April. There is also Sri Lanka's national new year, and Malaysia celebrates a new year somewhere in there, and Bangladesh.

And if 2021 still isn't up to snuff, the Serer people in Africa celebrate their new year in June. And so do the Dogon people, also in Africa.

Then there's Muharram, the Islamic new year celebration, starting on August 31st this year, and the Coptic new year in September, and the Ethiopian new year at the same time. And it looks like a bunch more Indian cultures have new years scattered through the fall. And Rosh Hoshanah, the Jewish new year, in early September.

And if 2021 really just isn't doing it for you, I guess you can end it early with Quviasukvik***, the Inuit, Aleut, and Yupik new year, which is held in December.

What do we learn from all of this? Well, first, we learn that calendars are just pretend****. But as long as we all keep believing, it will be fine. 

Then we learn that maybe January 1st isn't the only time to celebrate a new beginning and to try to improve. Because new beginnings are happening all the time, everywhere! So, feel free to declare your own personal new year any time you want. 

And, we also learn that it is super fun to live in a world where we celebrate the new year in different ways--and at different times! That is so cool! Hooray! 

*As long as Wikipedia isn't lying to me. Which goes for all the other new years listed here. 

**I just really love the idea of rebooting the year. 

***It seems like you should be able to say it in order to celebrate it. I don't make the rules, but that does seem like a good one. 

****In so many ways, time is just made up. Not the passage of 'time'--we get older, the earth does move around the sun, etc. But hours and minutes and days and deadlines and stuff. In a lot of ways, they are just made up.

Icebreakers for kids

What if the floor was made of bananas?

What if you had shoes that made the ground lava?

What if you could only sing?

What if buildings were made of peanuts?

What if you had a (fill in the blank, but obviously it has to be a non-typical animal) for a pet?

What if you mixed [insert 2 animals] together?

What if one of your toys became the real thing?

What if you had a feature of a different animal every day, like Imogene in Imogene's Antlers?

What if you lived on the moon? 

What if you lived in a tree? (I'm very curious what their treehouses would entail)

What would be the best dinosaur to have in the army? (Or as a firefighter, etc.)

What if a dragon breathed [insert something other than fire]?

Have nots

 I've been thinking lately about all the things that have not happened in my life. For example, I haven't:

• lived in a war-torn country where things are constantly being bombed
• experienced severe famine where I didn't have food to eat
• gone hungry for lack of food
• had my possessions destroyed in fire, flood, or other natural disasters
• been homeless
• lived somewhere where I was afraid of what the government might do
• been imprisoned, justly or unjustly
• been through a divorce 
• lost a child or spouse or parent
• been assaulted

And those are just some of my have-nots. Not to say I haven't had some hard haves, but all in all, I feel like my life is pretty fortunate. 

And now I'm going to go knock on wood. 

Bird Refuge