Oaxaca has a glorious reservoir of things to start the year with joy – flowers, incense, candles, and an abundance of fruits in all seasons ranging from dragon fruit, papaya, rambutan, and those tiny delicious bananas that you never can find in the US. Wherever you are, use whatever natural beauty the New Year gifts you with.
Buy new incense and dedicate it to carrying your prayers for 2023.
Sweep the floors.
Rearrange your house altars and/or art on your walls.
Fill the fruit bowl to overflowing with whatever is in season.
Buy fresh flowers or gather bare branches with colorful berries and fill several vases all around the house.
Go to Notifications settings and turn off sounds, lock screen, and banners for all but time-sensitive apps such as taxi, food delivery, and airlines. If you leave the little red circle badges on for everything else you’ll still know what needs your attention.
Put texts from the people from your naughty list into the archive bin or mute their notifications.
Replace the old dusty candles with new ones.
Uninstall some apps.
Throw away ratty underwear and socks.
Smash the mugs and plates that have cracks or chips in them. This is best done with glee while simultaneously angry about something.
Put all the random change that’s collected around the house in your wallet and give it away to those in need.
Burn old letters.
Write new letters to old loves.
Cancel unused subscription services.
Add new subscription services that connect you to unexpected sources of joy and inspiration just because.
Find an item of value in your house you no longer use and mentally note that you’ll give it away to the person who needs it when they show up.
Buy beautiful items well in advance of needing a gift so that when you do you’ll be ready.
Gather supplies for planning to make lovely things during winter and spring – seed catalogs, art kits, new journals, or whatever crafting bits and bobs your fingers find fine to touch.
Take the bin of stuff to the charity shop.
Delete boring and duplicate photos from last year’s camera roll.
Send the best pics from 2022 to the people who would find them amusing, touching, or surprising.
Decline two weekly meetings that no longer are giving you life.
Schedule a house cleaner monthly or bi-weekly.
Throw away the lipstick or necklace you wonder why you ever bought.
Delete entire text conversations with ex-lovers/friends/fam you desire to unburden from the heavy energy they hold.
Search “unsubscribe” in your mail and remove yourself from a dozen lists.
Consider what you had thought was 2-4 years away and imagine what it could look like if it happened this year.
Call or leave a voice note for someone you haven’t spoken to in more than a year.
Schedule tea with a friend.
Send flowers to someone for no reason or for a quite good reason.
If you like to sweep and fresh while you drop some bass, here’s my latest playlist over on Spotify. It’s 2h 39m of just a little bit naughty, as per usual.