It’s a blue moon new year’s eve, folks, as one of my dearest friends and writer, Patti Meredith, reminded me on Twitter and Facebook today!  Patti’s life is full of music.  She grew up in Galax, VA and learned to play and sing with her daddy and sister. I love going to visit Patti, or riding somewhere in her car, and hearing what she’s listing to on the stereo or the radio or the laptop. I love to hear her sing. She was the first person I knew who had satellite radio! Thank you Patti for the gift of Nanci Griffith singing “Once in a Very Blue Moon.” Find it here at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3uURS1iIVo&feature=related

I’m busy working on my resolution list. I think, since I just turned 53, I’ll try to get a list of 53 resolutions: large, medium, and small. I’ll write them down, as Zig suggests, to increase the likely hood of my success. 

I’ve asked some of my women friends I’ve been in touch with lately to share their New Year’s rituals with me, so that I can share a few with you.  Patti Meredith says she loves to get out the new date book/planner and get it ready for January 1 and all the doings in the coming year, pencil in the givens to build a framework for all the adventures and surprises coming down the pike to fill in the blank time slots. 

A date book is a plan, and it’s also a record. I have years worth of date books on a shelf in the office just because it is so hard to throw them away. They’re a record of how I’ve spent my time! My gone time. Can’t get it back.

I’ve been looking at Lisa Sanora Beam’s blog about making her own annual strategic planning date book.  She shares her beautiful ideas, her beautiful book, and some good categories to think about as we consider our 2010 strategic plan.  I’ll need a date book with more lines and numbers than her example, but I like her idea of a visually rich container for her very global vision. Along with the sound of music, I’m going to add some visual aids to my planning process, my plan, and my date book! Check out Lisa Senora Beam’s work at:  http://lisasonorabeam.com/2009/12/11/journal-peek-my-2010-strategic-planner%e2%80%94goal-setting-for-creatives/

Thinking about visual aids, night before last a long-time friend sent me a copy of my seventh-grade school picture.  It looks somethink like my daughter Beth! I’ve decided to use this photo for a while as my Facebook photo to remind me that I’m still young at heart. I still have dreams to fulfill, including finishing my current novel manuscript, and I still have adventure in my future.  I want to work a little bit of that into my resolution soup!

I’ll share my list as the month unfolds.  I’d love it if you blog readers and Facebook and Twitter friends shared some of your resolutions and some of your New Year’s rituals.  Add them here in the comments or respond directly on Fb or Twitter. You might give someone else a great idea for his or her 2010 vision.

Resolution #1: Listing to Nanci Griffith singing “Once in a Very Blue Moon” reminds me that I want more music in my life. I’ve gotten out of the habit of living with music playing. I want my soundtrack back. I want to wash dishes to Emylou Harris’s version of Wayfearing Stranger and write my blog with Iris Dement singing Beulah Land in the background–or “A Whole Lot of Heaven”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0c8q0nTzQ8. Maybe some Billy Holliday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqaFkC0EMmQ or Dolly Parton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKeulwZ3sGE or Aretha Franklin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrV0c9ETnWo.  Let’s Hear It for the Girls! Let’s listen to some girls! I bet you know who some of those fellows are, though.

Resolutions #2: Checking out Martha Stewart’s Dinner at Home: 52 Quick Meals to Cook for Family & Friends has made me eager to try some new recipes and eat at home more this year.  I resolve to make at-home meals more interesting. I’m looking through all those cookbooks collecting dust on the bookshelf and use some of those recipes. And I’m going to check out my friend Annelle Williams’ blog “Annelle’s Table” at: http://aroundannellestable.blogspot.com/  (Annelle Williams and Patti Meredith are sisters.)

Have you heard of the New Year’s Day ritual of eating black-eyed peas , hog jowls, and turnip greens? Well, the black-eyed peas represents your coins in your pocket during the coming year, the greens represent the folding money, and the hog  jowls represent pork bellies and a bull market.  For a new spin on an old theme, here’s a black-eyed pea salad (admapted from a Martha Stewart recipe) that includes some greens. Put a pork tenderloin in the crockpot with your favorite bar-b-que sauce (mine would be from the Dixie Pig in Martinsville, VA) . When it’s done, chop it up into barbeque and add this salad and some corn bread. You’ll be eating a find New Year’s dinner and lining your pockets all at the same time!

Black-Eyed Pea Salad with Baby Greens 

1 can (15 oz.) black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed

1 cup of cherry tomatoes quartered

3 thinly sliced scallions

1 garlic clove, minced

1 T. coarsely chopped  parsley

basil to taste, coarsely chopped

1 T. red wine vinegar

1 t. Dijon mustard

3 T. extra-virgin olive oil

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

6 c.  mixed baby greens 

In a large bowl, gently toss black-eyed peas with tomato, onion, garlic, cilantro, vinegar, mustard, and oil; season with salt and pepper. When ready to serve, combine spinach and mustard greens in large salad bowl. Top with the bean saldad, and gently toss to combine. I plated the lettuce and spooned the mixture of the lettuce. That way all the good stuff doesn’t sink to the bottom. The pea mixture is a good side dish even without the greens.  Enjoy!

Resolutions #3: Write shorter blog entries!

Let’s all make some music and dance and eat healthy in 2010!  Let’s have some adventure! Let’s try some new things! Let’s leave something behind for folks to remember us by in the most positive way. Be sure you’re dancing and singing at the stroke of midnight!

Happy New Year from Darnell and the dancing gorilla.

Scene Storm Word List:

dime

moon

date

cup

slice

sing

list

long

fifty-three (things)

black-eyed peas