Me with my 4 year old daughter's guitar, I'm thinking of taking lessons this year. I've been plunking around on it for a few days now.
Sitting here enjoying a big thick bowl of French Canadian pea soup & a small slice of toast I've decided now that (besides officially ruining my dinner with a late-afternoon snack) I steadfastly refuse to straighten my hair for awhile. I am wavy naturally, and quite frankly am a slave to a flat iron. Not for a couple of weeks. I will go boho and love it. Besides which, I found the Moroccan oil which has saved my parched wintery locks from cracking so I'll leave it be and let it stay hydrated and healthy for a bit. I've always thought that straightening my hair was a form of exercising some control over my life so I'll let that slip a little, allowing the ideas of others to shape me somewhat for you never do know what amazing things will occur if you let it all go.
Pea soup is delicious, and quite filling. I'd be enjoying it with my youngest daughter, had she not fallen privy to an afternoon kip, which followed an artistic breakdown (you know the kind) whereby the paper amphora she was colouring for me went awry-her little blue outlines went marginally outside their intended boundaries and lo! nothing could make that better. So, while she cried large rolly tears of it'll never be right I rubbed her back while she lay on the bed slobbering and sobbing (much like I feel like doing the odd but not too-often time) and before you know it! she was snoring. Sawing logs. Peacefully and loudly and sometimes when things go painfully wrong it is only because we are well and truly tired, is all.
Like 2009 for example, the tired out year of 2009. It too was fresh like pea soup. Full of zing like a hot buttery slice of toast. Why now are we so eager to toss her out the window and embrace the possibility of 2010? When perhaps, likely it will end much the same...being tossed out the window to make way for 2011! Then 2012! Each year is what we make it, no? Well each moment is what we make it really. So that said, let's not burden the shoulders of 2010 with too many loads to carry. If we are so tired of 2009 let us bid her adieu respectfully & lovingly, as she so carried us through...be it thick-or thin, happy-or sad, healthy-or wishing for health. After all, anything that happened then could easily happen next week. Will it then turn into "one of those years"?
I say take your power back. Make 2010 what you want it to be and blame nothing on the year. For the year ain't nothing but a number. But you, you can wake up from your nap refreshed and ready to tackle another paper amphora or whatever-it-is with GREATNESS. Nothing fails my friends. We are up, we are down. Our downs have built-in light that we see only once we are past it. I will leave you to ponder the destiny of your year. Carve it out, paint it up, photograph it, sing it, play with it, and truly live it.
I'll leave you now. I'm going to string some fairy lights around a tree because I already miss the glow of our Christmas tree. Then I'm going to read a new book-The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. Drink my tea. Count my blessings.
xoxox Happy New Year today, and every day. xoxox
Your thoughts are as warm and comforting as a bowl of French Canadian pea soup!!
Bless your little one for the meltdown that brought on much needed sleep...sometimes that's all we are about really -- over stressed, overwhelmed and over stimulated and we need that "release" in order to replenish and refresh. May she waken feeling fully restored!
And so true on tossing out an old year; on "blaming" the year for troubles or disappointments...it is a number only, an accumulation of days, one different from another. It's how we approach those days and what we take from them that make up our lives.
Rich Gillian. So very rich you are!
Posted by: Sherry | January 01, 2010 at 05:29 PM
So true...we definitely weigh a year down with our heavy expectations of what it can bring to us and deliver for us...when truly it lies in our own hands! I had lost you for awhile!! Didn't know about the address change and came upon a dead-end everytime I clicked the link! Happy New Year to me for rediscovering!
Posted by: Tanya | January 01, 2010 at 06:38 PM
Wise words, my friend. And I bet your hair looks fabulous, any way you wear it! Yes, the year will be what we make of it. I, for one, intend to make it something special. xoxox
Posted by: Tara Bradford | January 01, 2010 at 06:41 PM
There is no time, only always....but it is cool how they tried to divide it up into years. It gives us all a chance to reinvent and restart! Going to be good!
Posted by: gemma | January 01, 2010 at 07:39 PM
Of course, you are correct. We can choose GREATNESS moment to moment, year to year. I am right there with you!
I have started Lovely Bones as well. I am somewhere around chapter 12 but I am a slow reader (some would say "slow-head" bu tthat is neither here nor there). The book certainly isn't a laugher but I do hope it lightens up a little, eventually.
Be good and if you can't handle that, at least have fun!
Posted by: Steve Kubien | January 01, 2010 at 09:47 PM
Happy New Years Gillian. I like your new site. There are quite a few people who have gone on to Typepad. I'll come by. Have a great year and thanks for stopping by my blog.
Posted by: gloria | January 01, 2010 at 09:53 PM
Happy New Year! I agree, the year is just a number and we can choose what to do with the new year ahead. It really is great to sit down and count our blessings. It helps us to realize how blessed we really are!
Posted by: Lori S | January 02, 2010 at 12:46 AM
I really agree with what you said here and try not to summarize things by years and am never one to take on a resolution. this year was filled with many great moments...one of the best being my new friends through flickr...the ones i know will be with me in 2010 no matter what i do online :)
and oh do i every know those big rolly tears and wish it was as easy as taking a log sawing nap and waking up refreshed...but maybe it is that easy after all...i tell my daughter what i tell myself..."you are the only one who can make the decision to be happy and enjoy the day"
...as far as the hair...we all want what we don't have but it i have learned a long time ago to flow with what mother nature gave you because she indeed is one of the best artists out there...does that mean i will stop doing the blond highlights...lol...probably not...i am too good at being the blond now that my roots may render me a bit boring!
big hugs Gillian and happy twenty ten!
Posted by: Karen Salva | January 02, 2010 at 09:43 AM
Happy New Year, Gillian! Yes, go boho! And I want to see pics!
And yes, I've experienced those same it's-not-working-out-agh! tears before. Sometimes it's just a matter of literally crying it all out and taking a nap to get back on track again.
And yes, each year we start the New Year fresh with full of hope, remembering the past year with varying degrees of contentment or discontent. Many of us went through alot of uncertainty regarding our jobs in 2009 but what else can we do but make better choices and have hope in the future. And be thankful for all the good things that did happen to and for us in the last 12 months.
Anyway, Gillian, I wish for you a brand new year filled with adventure, art-making, photo-taking, love, friendship, inspiration and creativity. I'm so glad that we met in this virtual year. Maybe we'll meet in the real one in 2010?!
Posted by: susanna | January 02, 2010 at 10:22 AM
I've been so busy doing nothing much that I haven't been around to visit my friends in too long. So, though my wishes are late, I mean them with my whole heart. May your year be filled with laughter. May all your surprises be happy ones. May you remember to count your blessings. May you know each day how very much you are loved. Happy new year, my friend.
Posted by: Relyn | January 05, 2010 at 01:12 AM