Ilike to eat pork and cabbage on New Year’s Day for good luck in the coming year. Some people eat corned beef and cabbage, sometimes throwing in black eyed peas. But for me, it’s pork and cabbage. I learned it from Harold Sammons, who used to run a salvage yard out on the Henry-Jefferson County Line Road. Harold swore by pork and cabbage, saying that if he did not eat pork and cabbage on New Year’s Day, his year would turn to junk. LOL. I believed him and picked up the habit.

Usually, we’ve gotten by with boiling the cabbage and eating it slathered with butter, which is plenty good. Other times it was coleslaw. But this year Ginnie fried the cabbage with bacon bits. Oh, boy. And along with the pork roast and potatoes and carrots, and strawberry pie for good measure, it was a meal guaranteed to bring good fortune for a whole year.

Ginnie and I had pork and cabbage last New Year’s Day, as we have had every year since we’ve been married (nine years), and the proof is in the pudding. I kicked cancer this year, thanks to aronia juice, some brilliant doctors and your prayers. Ginnie thought she had a tumor, but it turned out to be a polyp. Our marriage is stronger than ever (she’s almost got me trained), and I don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t have each other. We each take care of the other–me being the recipient of most of the care. Ha! So it’s been a good year and we’re looking forward to an even better 2025.

I also believe that how we conduct ourselves on New Year’s Day sets the tone for the whole year. This New Year’s Day, I started early as usual by getting up at 1 a.m. or so (I just wake up), made a pot of coffee, let the dog out, read a chapter in the Bible, then did some pleasure reading and writing. I then napped for an hour or so, got up, did my morning prayers and meditation, then exercised. I exercise an hour a day. I weighed myself before exercising, noting with pleasure that I was down a pound from the day before, thanks to Ginnie’s Peanut Cluster Diet. I thought, “Way to start the New Year right and light!” But turning the t.v. on for something to watch during exercise, informed me of the awful tragedy in New Orleans. Bummer. I hoped this wasn’t a harbinger of things to come. I fear it is. Ginnie had breakfast ready for me when I finished exercising–cinnamon rolls and sausage. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to treat Ginnie, my trophy wife, with love and respect, even if the house is on fire. Next to sobriety and God, Ginnie is the best thing that ever happened in my life, so I should show her my appreciation. Then it was Bowl Games and trying not to think about a white pick-up truck ramming down Bourbon Street.

I’ve read some good books recently. I tell my Creative Writing students that if they want to improve their writing, to read. It consciously or subconsciously rubs off on you. My favorite male and female fiction writers are: Charles Frazier (“Cold Mountain”) and Elizabeth Strout (“Olive Kitteridge”). I’ve read all of their books, two and three times. If you want an author to rub off on you, read them again. And again.

My morning meditation book tells me not to search for happiness. Happiness cannot be sought. It is a by-product of right living. What is right living? Right living is defined as helping or serving others.

There you have it. If you didn’t eat pork (or corned beef) and cabbage on New Year’s Day, you can catch up. It’s no jive. Come alive in 2025.

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Have a good story? Call or text Curt Swarm in Mt. Pleasant at 319-217-0526 or email him at curtswarm@yahoo.com. Curt is available for public speaking.