" What you see with your inner-eye, you meet sooner or later in the external." - Florence Scovel Shinn ("The Magic of Intuition.)
Instead of creating goals based on a calendar, I try to bring in a new year with a new intention. An essence of the year is far stronger for me and it limits me not by the specifics of a goal, or failure; but by my imagination's way to get creative in betterment. That feels less like coming from a place of lack.
I approach the year with an honest self-effaced intention to be more, or better or pushed farther than I was last year. To do this, I think it's important to see myself with a bit of an eye-roll and genuinely be tired of that "same old" pattern, persona, idea of whomever I present outwardly. Only then, do I truly become inspired for the wild dare of change and self-belief and momentum....
In no way do I think this is the only or best way to begin a year, but it is, indeed, the best way for me.
To be sick of my old self. See the next day, hour, year as a gift to become. To become...always to keep becoming....
To be sick of my old self. See the next day, hour, year as a gift to become. To become...always to keep becoming....
Five poems I picked at random that are perfect for the occasion:
1.) A snippet from John O'donohue:
"A blessing for the "artist" at the start of the day":
"May your imagination know
the grace of perfect danger,
to reach beyond imitation,
and the wheel of repetition,
Deep into the call of all
that unfinished and unsolved
Until the veil of the unknown yields,
and something original begins,
to stir toward your senses
and grown stronger in your heart
in order to comet to birth
in a clean line of form
that claims from time
a rhythm not yet heard,
that calls space to
a different shape.
may it be its own force field
and dwell uniquely
between the heart and the light
to respires the hungry eye
by how deftly it fits
about its secret loss. "
2.) "The Self-Slaved" by Patrick Kavanagh:
Me I will throw away.
Me sufficient for the dayThe sticky self that clings
Adhesions on the wings
To love and adventure,
To go on the grand tour
A man must be free
From self-necessity
See over there
A created splendour
Made by one individual
From things residual
With all the various
Qualities hilarious
Of what
Hitherto was not:
A November mood
As by one man understood;
Familiar, an old custom
Leaves falling, a white frosting
Bringing a sanguine dream
A new beginning with an old theme
Throw away thy sloth
Self, carry off my wrath
With its self-righteous
Satirising blotches.
No self, no self-exposure
The weakness of the proser
But undefeatable
By means of the beatable
I will have love, have love
From anything made of
And a life with a shapely form
With gaiety and charm
And capable of receiving
With grace the grace of living
And wild moments too
Self when freed from you.
Prometheus calls me: Son,
We’ll both go off together
In this delightful weather
3.) From Dr. Suess.
"You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And you are the one who'll decide where to go."
4.) "What you Make it" - Emil Carl Aurin
"This old, old world is a dreary place
For the man whose pass is a frowning face;
Who looks for the shadows instead of the light,
For the sordid and dull instead of the bright,
Who sees but the worry and labor and strife
Instead of the glory and sunshine of life.
But for him who possesses the saving grace
Of a laughing heart and a smiling face,
Who sings at his work and laughs at defeat,
and looks for the good and the bright and the sweet,
Who cheers on his fellows by word and by deed,
This world is a pleasant place indeed."
5.) A stanza from "Who I really am."
"Leave me without companion,
without camaraderie, and without friend,
First take away the awareness of myself,
then let me see who I really am."
-Nashat Isfahani ("Love's Alchemy")
And so it is all yours to learn, leave behind, let go of, live in, or love with....GO!
"Shimmer with a smile. Life is hard, bloom anyway."
