New Year Thoughts

Happy New year!!   A new year always seems like a clean slate to me and after this past year I could use a clean slate, I think that a lot of us can.

Recently we had a beautiful snowfall -- it seemed like it was issuing in a lovely, soft, white winter -- a time of the year for cocooning inside where its warm and cozy.

Winter is almost like a 'time out' for everything but soft, quiet days in which to gather ideas, do some creating and just slow down.  I found this most wonderful journal which I will be starting today.  Each page has a reminder to practice mindfulness.  If I can bring mindfulness into my life this new year I will feel as if I've accomplished a lot. 

"What would it be like if I could accept life - accept this moment - exactly like it is?" Tara Brach 

On Years and Time and Stuff

With a birthday between Christmas and New Year and then the turning of the new year - my mind drifts these days.  Drifting to the past -- all those many years behind me -- all the love I've had in my life, the joy and the pain, the laughter and the tears and just think, here I am - beginning a new year all over again.

Each year I write in a journal.  Earlier on I did it on the computer, just for ease and probably readability too - since my handwriting is awful.  For the past few years I have written each year's journal.  These aren't the 'art journals' that some of you create and that are so beautiful.  These are just no nonsense writings, usually of ideas for future projects or what I worked on that day.  Interjections of something good happening or something bad happening.  

At the end of each year I go back and read the current year's entries.  But then sometimes during this quiet lull at the beginning of the a new year I'll go back and read past years too.  Sort of fun to see where my art journey has taken me over the years.

But now, today, this moment, its time to look ahead.   I hope for all of us its a magical, mystical, marvelous year.

"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." - Abraham Lincoln

New Year - More Fun

I love the new year -- I see before me 365 brand spanking new days.  I know what some of them will contain (or at least I think I do) but there are so many months, weeks, days, hours ahead that its like looking at a blank slate.

My first stitchery of the new year will be 'comfortable'.  It will speak of home and safety and the lovely softness that can come upon you while drinking hot tea or cocoa on a cold, winter's day. 

"Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality." - Andy Goldsworthy 

Joyous New Year

As we begin a new year I'd like the share the following wishes for all of us in this brand new year.

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.
May your coming year be a wonderful thing in which you dream
both dangerously and outrageously.
I hope you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it.
That you will be loved and you will be liked
and that you will have people to love and like in return.
And most importantly because
I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now.
I hope that you will, when you need to be, be wise,
and that you will always be kind.
And I hope that somewhere, in the next year,
you surprise yourself.

~ Neil Gaiman

Happy New Year!!

Welcome to the New Year

"Snow Bird"

Tomorrow we'll welcome the new year.  I love that as each year begins I feel like my slate is clean, that everything is a possibility, that whatever I did wrong last year will be replaced this coming year with good decisions, good thoughts, good deeds and good work.  Resolutions aren't really something I worry about but I always have goals I want to reach in the coming year, and dreams that I want to come true.

During this coming year I plan to focus on punchneedle and doll making as my art forms.  I'm excited and have drawings and pictures and ideas fluttering all about my studio.  Hopefully some of them will alight long enough to be brought into being.

Here's a big New Year's toast that this coming year is bigger, better and more wonderful for all of us.

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love". - Marcus Aurelius

Welcome 2010

I can't say 'out with the old, in with the new' because I am perfectly happy with the 'old' and hope to maintain it throughout this coming year!! But, it is a new year so I'll try to think ahead.  This is what I want for the coming year (at least in the 'art' part of my world):  Beading every day; being a part of BJP for the first time; joining our local Fiber Alliance group; working with InspiredArts (a small local guild) to present a major art/craft show in May; the annual Studio Tour in September. 

Then there are the near to me/dear to me things: Being grateful for my life and everything that fills it; loving and sharing life with my husband; loving and sharing life with my family and friends; enjoying my natural world each and every day.

And there are the hoped for things: safety for my eldest grandson in his far away place; connecting as often as possible with friends and family; living each day as if it is the 'best day of the year'.   While I am hoping, perhaps I can extend those hopes and dreams for everyone - the whole world - why not?  That tears be dried and laughter felt; that hunger dies and fullness reigns; that everyone, everywhere may reach their full potential for good.  If all my hopes and wishes and dreams come true -- this will be a wonderful year!

"Dreams are wishes your heart makes." - American Proverb