hello, 2017

Hello, sweet friends. Happy New Year.

We are a week into 2017 and I am feeling both serene and windblown. I had a very full month, full of family, friends and big projects. Honestly, I am relieved that the holidays are over. I needed January. January, for me, is a time of pure reflection. It is a time to draw inward in quiet power while preparing to push outward into this new year.

January is also my birthday month, representing another revolution around the sun for me as a person as well as the calendar. Perhaps this is why I love celebrating the new year. I love fresh starts. I thrive on opportunities for revitalized energy. It’s all so exciting.

In the past few years, however, I have worked to strip this time of year of its romanticism. I don’t want to pretend that my New Year’s Eve will be a blur of glitter and perfect transition. In fact, it rarely is. New Year’s Day is usually a complete slump. And the days surrounding New Year’s Eve? Forget it. I’m a mess of uselessness.

One way I curbed the craving for this romantic delusion was changing how I view New Year’s resolutions. As you might guess, I love resolutions. A combination of reflection and improvement? Sign me up. I do, however, think the material, external resolutions get a bit out of hand. Losing weight, eating better, make fast cash, etc. They get stressful, competitive and unachievable despite the pressure of the new year.

Last year, my friend Emily and I tried something new. We chose two words that would drive our entire year.

For 2016, my words were “balance” and “courage.”

Reflecting back,, those would probably be the two words I would also choose to describe my year. During the first half, I achieved balance as a human. I lived in a peaceful and wild way. These two halves of myself coexisted beautifully and shaped a quiet intensity that I hope to always carry with me. The second half of my year was absolutely driven by courage. I set off to an unfamiliar country with little to no plan, only to fall into complete uncertainty upon my return.

For 2017, my words are “patience” and “intention.” With my work, relationships and self. I have a hunch that this year will be creative, internal and as I hoped before, quietly intense.

2016, for me, and I’m sure for all of us, was an emotional year. For my readers in the United States, the end of the year shattered our country. Now that 2017 is here, it is time to come together. To create. To rebuild what those in power are striving to break.

I hope my fellow artists, and fellow humans in general, are forming their plans to make 2017 a powerful year. (By the way, anyone else going to the Women’s March on Washington in two weeks? I’ll be there!)

I am thrilled to be moving forward with all of you. Thank you, dear readers, for sticking with me through 2016. It has meant the world to me that you are here. I hope we can connect even more in this coming year. Connection, after all, is the ultimate healer.

Peace, my friends.