{"id":34851,"date":"2022-01-01T00:01:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T08:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=34851"},"modified":"2026-06-06T10:12:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:12:25","slug":"hope-y-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/hope-y-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Wishing You a Hope-y New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"hope-y<\/a>
New Year’s Eve at Times Square as captured last night by CNN . . . Hope-y New Year! Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hope-y New Year!<\/p>\n

OK. I know. That’s one super hokey, cornball headline. No doubt about it.<\/p>\n

But I’m using it anyway. It suits my mood as I write this greeting.<\/p>\n

It matched my mood during a Dungeness crab dinner<\/a> with friends the other night, when I lifted a glass of prosecco and said, straight-faced, “Happy New Year, everybody. Maybe something good will happen in 2022!”<\/p>\n

Let’s get real. What good can possibly transpire in the coming months? An end to the covid pandemic? A detente in the culture wars? A climate change reversal? World peace?<\/p>\n

But hope is my default mood. It’s a life-long habit, and maybe it’s what causes me to come up with punny headlines and then — rashly — let them go public.<\/p>\n

Like a lot of people, as December rolls to a close, I can’t help thinking that the new year will somehow be better than the old year.<\/p>\n

And so, on this first day of 2022, I’m sticking with hope. I recommend hope. Not because hope is rational, or gets results, or assures that 2022 will be any better than 2021, or even that hope is good for your mental health.<\/p>\n

Hope feels good, that’s all. Sorta like a bite of crab followed by a sip of prosecco.<\/p>\n

So, bring it on, 2022.\u00a0Surprise us.<\/p>\n

Read about the year 2020 at “Widowed: 2020 Was a Very Good Year for Jon and Me.”<\/a>\u00a0 Or read about the year we wrote the letter that changed our lives at “A Baby to Adopt — The Letter That Made It Happen.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a>\"hope-y<\/a><\/p>\n

Hope-y New Year! Here’s to a hope-filled 2022. Not because hope will solve the climate crisis or end the culture wars. But just . . . because.\u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[2548,2549,34,2550,2551,82,2419],"class_list":["post-34851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey","tag-2548","tag-2549","tag-dont-miss","tag-happy-new-year","tag-hope-y-new-year","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-widowed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49378,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34851\/revisions\/49378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}