Happy New Year! As mundane an expression as that is, it is most often delivered with sincerity. Friend or foe, I sincerely wish you a happy 2016.
Yes, I know that January is trending towards February and the stores are already pulling out Valentine decorations, but it is STILL January. A new year. A new beginning. A fresh start. The world collectively contemplates what has come transpired and what might be. We look back and we look forward.
The New Year is a good thing to pause and evaluate life, to make course corrections and embrace possibility, but the New Year is NOT the only time and it is not necessarily the best time.
Mornings are opportunities for micro-evaluations and course corrections, but mostly mornings belong to routine and auto-drive or no one would make it out of the house.
First of the month. Bigger than the morning but smaller than the New Year is the first of the month. Twelve opportunities to pause, evaluate and make course corrections.
Seasons are bigger than months and more fluid. Some places get four distinct seasons while others just get two or three. Do you have a favorite season? Do you, COULD you tie a new beginning to your favorite season?
Birthdays, like New Years, are singular opportunities. Although they come around annually, they are never the same. I was 55 on the 3rd. It feels significant. A new year, a new age, a new season of life.
Death is a cruel opportunity for course correction. Mortality is not something most of us consider on a daily basis. When death of one near or dear interrupts our routines, it is an opportunity to contemplate personal mortality and consider personal legacy. Politicians do it. Maybe we should, too.
I could go on and on but (HOORAY!) I won’t. The moral of this story is that our lives are filled with opportunities to start fresh. I am not saying that we can nor should avoid the consequences for our choices. I am saying that there is power and there is mercy and there is grace in new beginnings and we don’t have to wait for a new year.
Set aside a time and seek out a place to pause, evaluate, and calculate a course corrections. Pause long enough to discover where we are and to remember where we are going. Minor course corrections, early, will impact on the trajectory of a life. Less correction is required the sooner the flaw is discovered.
Museums are a good place for contemplation. The artwork allows you to see the world, be it landscape, still life, portraiture, or abstraction, through the eyes of another. Art enables us to see ourselves in and through the work. Take a journal. You might be surprised where the art and your heart take you when you visit a museum.
Nature is the number one worldwide place for reconnecting with one’s self and direction. New research is showing that our brains work differently exposed to nature. EVEN a potted plant (not a pot plant but maybe that, too) can reduce cortisol (stress hormone.) Take a pencil and a journal. Write. Sketch. Listen. Hear. Record.
Cozy places, be they at home or in a favorite coffee spot, make room for contemplation and new beginnings. Again, the journal. (3×5 cards work well, too.)
There is a kindness to a fresh start. We usually think of kindness as something extended to others. That is important, but what I am speaking of is kindness to oneself. Allowing ourselves to pause. Allowing ourselves to look back and to look forward, not with judgement or condemnation, but with love and kindness. Allowing for and enacting course correction is vital.
I have been painting for over 30 years. I assumed being a good painter would be enough to earn my living painting. It is not enough and I am making those course corrections and learning to share my art (and my heart) with those outside my circle. Thank you for journeying with me.
Gwen