Hello y’all,
I hope you had a really nice Christmas or Festivus or Hanukah or whatever it is you chose to celebrate this year. Mine was nice – very quiet. It included a lot of food and some novel writing. By the way, I am using the word y’all in the name of being gender neutral. I read an article lately that suggested using “folks” instead of “you guys,” and maybe I’ve been living in Oklahoma too long, but I think “y’all” sounds way better than “folks” (who knows where the article writer is from – probably Pennsylvania or someplace generic like that).
What are your plans for New Year’s? And what are your plans for the New Year?
New Year’s Eve is a simple affair here. I am teaching yoga on the 31st and the 1st (and doing something yoga-related every damn day until the end of January – sigh). On New Year’s Eve, we will probably have a family dinner and call it good by 10pm.
In the good old days, I used to like to play games on NYE, making a big pot of soup or something equally warming, and sitting at the kitchen table with family and friends and feeling cozy. No one in my current domestic situation plays games – they are far too pragmatic. This makes me kind of sad. But I will suck it up, eat some cupcakes and work on some knitting. I have big plans for 2018, NYE festivities or no.
What’s your word?
You know, that thing where you choose a word for the coming year? Yeah that. Let’s go there.
Just as important as setting an intention for the new year, is the intentional closing of the current year. A little self-reflection is okay, provided one doesn’t look back too much. The past is often filled with regret (or at best, nostalgia), the future sometimes holds fear. So that leaves us with right now. Here we are, at the end of 2017. How do you feel about this? And how do you choose to feel as you step into 2018? I know it sounds schlocky but – we really do have a choice.
I choose to step into 2018 with a little more conscious engagement.
I realize that “conscious engagement” may not make the best hand-lettered Instagram meme, but I don’t care.
My actual phrase for 2018 is Deliberate Creation. Because I intend to create the hell out of next year. This is where sh*t gets real as far as my writing is concerned. Maybe you can’t tell from this email, but just take my word for it.
What is your word/phrase for 2018? Feel free to share, I’d like to know.
I’ve been thinking a lot about alchemy lately. The idea of transforming everyday materials into precious substances. Some days, life does feel pretty magical. Other days it just feels like I work at a laundromat, but even so, I can take pleasure in creating a nice stack of clean folded laundry from what was once a pile of sweaty gym clothes that needed their own hazmat designation.
May 2018 be filled with magic for you. May you find that formula for transforming the ordinary into the exquisite, and may you always have a full heart.
Do more yoga, y’all.
Love,
a
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