Celebrating New Years 2016

by Irina Vishnevskaya, Tastemaker in Residence

New years is above and beyond my favorite holiday- it’s the ultimate marking of the passing of time, the perfect time to reflect on the past years triumphs and difficulties and also set powerful intentions for hope, peace and prosperity for the year to come. 

For me, New Years always signifies a great gathering of a mixture of friends and family and a wonderful, all-out celebration, as well as some time reflecting, journaling and planning. My family likes to tease me about this, but my favorite topic of conversation for this time of year is “What do you really hope to work on in the coming year?”. Once I get past the initial eye roll reaction, I get some great responses. 

This year, I find myself in Chiang Mai, the magical city in Northern Thailand for the holiday. My fiancee and I look forward to stuffing ourselves silly with street food and releasing our wishes for the year into the sky with large paper lanterns. I’m excited beyond belief, but I’ll certainly be missing loved ones scattered all over the world. 

So here’s to a wonderful, prosperous, adventure-filled, love-rich, experience-intense 2016. I’ll leave you with my favorite quote this time of year, a good reminder for all of us: 

"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something. So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make new mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever." -Neil Gaiman