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A Year for Sunlight and Champagne

Happy New Year! I had a strange New Year’s Eve — it began very early wrestling most of the wee hours with an urgent but not life-threatening ailment, a huge amount of naps and then shopping. But it wound down nicely to a good stretch of flatbread pizza-making, wine drinking and nestling on a sofa safe and warm in my sweetheart’s arms. But then 2013 began with funny, happy dreams of drinking mimosas with Drew Barrymore. And I woke up to sunlight streaming through the windows, making the room sunlit and golden — like last night’s champagne had spilled into the morning sunshine. And I thought, this is EXACTLY the way I want this year to feel.

2012 ended perfectly. If I could turn the past year into a movie, it’d be called “Hearth, Heart and Home.” It was a peaceful, solid year of stability, love, family and quiet, steadfast progress towards long-held dreams. It was what my soul completely needed, especially since the past few years were so full of tumult, excitement, change and transitions. I rebuilt my foundation, caught my breath and bearings, and filled the well once again. I finally absorbed all the changes and insights and integrated them within me. It was just a lovely slow exhale of a year: ahhhhhhhhhh.

But for 2013, I’m ready to let loose again. To let it all be sparkling, radiant, effervescent, glittering with possibilities and joie de vivre. Kick up my heels a bit, let down my hair, dig in and do something epic and magical and brave and big. I have some exciting things on the horizon, some new stories I can’t wait to weave. I just am so excited for it all, and excited to share it all here.

Yes, I’ve got resolutions and goals and intentions and projects — I didn’t spend the last month thinking, reflecting, dwelling, filling out my secret hippie productivity tool and dreaming out loud for nothing. But, more than anything, more than any list of things to do and make and accomplish, I want to remember how I want my 2013 to feel: glowing, radiant, sparkling and warm.

St. Vincent, “Champagne Year”

Like what you just read? Maybe you'll like my book as well

All Things Glorious and True: Love Letters to Pop Culture, New York, Fashion and Other Objects of Affection is a collection of essays exploring how my crushes on music, dive bars, books, outfits and so much else gave me a braver soul, more open heart and even love. All Things is like a great, stylish mixtape: surprising, kind of punky, fun and often heartfelt.

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Tags: 2012, champagne year, feelings

8 Responses to “A Year for Sunlight and Champagne”

  1. John says:

    My first dream of the New Year was that I was hanging out at the mall with my good friend, Taylor Swift, who still saw me as a big brother figure although she’d dated and broken the heart of my little brother. It doesn’t really sound like it, but I found it an extremely auspicious dream, as in real life I begin a new chapter of my life in the Midwest living with the little brother whose heart TSwift apparently broke. I woke up feeling very cheerful about the year to come.

    Reply
    • Kat Asharya says:

      Here’s to dreaming about celebrities as spirit animals in 2013! And to new chapters in life! That sounds like a pleasant dream, actually…of all the famous people you could dream about, Swifty is a pretty positive character, as least from the sounds of your dream Are you near Chicago? I’m not extremely close to it but do try to get there every so often! If you do, let me know! xo k.

      Reply
      • John says:

        I’m in Lafayette Indiana, 2 hours from Chicago…maybe we could meet there one of these days! That would be really great.

        Yes, I was very pleased about that dream. I really like Taylor Swift, for whatever reason. It definitely felt like a good sign.

        Speaking of celebrities, I have heard on Facebook that both Frances Bean Cobain and Lourdes Ciccone Leon are going to my alma mater, Bard College. My brother says “it’s like you wrote fan-fiction.”

        Reply
        • Kat Asharya says:

          oh yeah, you’re about as far from chicago as me! good times! yes, maybe we can meet there, that would be fun!

          i have this weird emotional dynamic with taylor. i’m always singing her songs and i think she’s a great songwriter but sometimes i wanna shake her. but very affectionately, like how you’d shake your baby sister!

          i think it’d be awesome if both lourdes and frances bean went to bard and became like best friends. then it would really, really feel like fan fiction!

          xo k.

          Reply
  2. Eadaoin says:

    Happy New Year Kat! It sounds like 2013 started out very well for you, and I hope it continues on like that. Wishing you lots of love and light for the year ahead x

    Reply
    • Kat Asharya says:

      Thanks so much, Eadaoin, and a beautiful New Year to you, too! Looking forward to lots of beauty on your blog in 2013! xo k.

      Reply
  3. Sparks: The Humble Importance of Water, Bijoux to Lift the Spirits and Jackie Kennedy’s Funeral Poem « Kat Asharya | Notes on Writing, Life and Other Enchantments says:

    [...] A Year for Sunlight and Champagne [...]

    Reply
  4. Sparks: Haunting Dulcet Voices, Earthy Yet Sunlit Lily Perfumes and Some Foodcentric Thoughts « Kat Asharya | Notes on Writing, Life and Other Enchantments says:

    [...] It is funny what people suggest when you tell them that “radiance” is your vague guidepost for 2013. Champagne really is the most popular suggestion, and I am wholeheartedly onboard with this. But, [...]

    Reply