welcome 2012!

As so often happen to me, just as I'm trying to articulate something in my own words, I get a springboard from someone else to get that process started. It's so funny that I was suggesting that my outlook/goal/mantra for 2012...one of defining or re-defining myself...might be sort of messy. Any sort of revamp is. Whether it be re-writing a paper, renovating a house, or even just rearranging a kitchen cabinet. There's an element of unrest, possibly complete turmoil, before things are put back in order again. I sort of imagine that this is what the beginning of 2012 will be like for me. Why would one take that on...walking into the mess? Well, because it's time. It's time for me to take a look at the space that I live in (literally and figuratively) and make sure it still suits me. It's time for me to take a look at how I approach my work and my free time and make sure that I'm living it all to the fullest. It's time for me to take a look at my relationships and see if they are they best that they can be...and that I'm giving them my best...and that I have the relationships I want. Why is it time? I don't really know, but I just feel like it is! No time like the present? And as if to pave the way for me, to reassure me that the messiness that might be ahead is okay, a friend posted this last night:
"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are 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)
I also love what Neil had to say on previous New Year's: "May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art - write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself" and "I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind."
What beautiful sentiments. All of them. And so, in giving credit to others, but in stealing a few ideas for my 2012 wishes/resolutions as I seek to (re-)define myself I will seek to:
- love boldly
- be kind...to others and to myself
- read more books
- see more movies
- take more adventures (big and small)
- be the best me that I can be, but always be me (authentically me)
- let my work and my words and my actions and my living space and my activities and my relationships reflect me
- make mistakes...but mostly, take risks that matter even if they end in mistakes...and then learn from them
- try new things (in every way imaginable from new recipes to new exercise to new hobbies to new ways of being in relationships to new work ethics)
- let go of things from the past that are holding me back (relationships, mindsets, memories, fears...)
- laugh freely...especially at myself
- honor silence (in myself and in others) and the time that it takes for life to reveal itself, for decisions to be made, for hearts to find their way
- think about what else I can give to the world (to those whom I know and love and to those who are strangers) so as not to let any gifts be wasted
- welcome whatever the universe brings as I/we press on (this is the part of re-defining that acknowledges that it's not all about me or up to me and that there is a greater plan for me...thankfully!)...and somewhere along the way, expect a miracle (or two)
Here's to a mistake-ridden, love-filled, rewarding and soul-searching 2012 for all...and, as Dean said today in yoga, "let 2011 go..." So freeing.