new year; same old me

 The new year came in with a bang. 

Truly ...  we were alerted to the calender numbers flipping over to 2015 by the neighbor's fireworks. He is a bachelor with his own landscaping company which means his backyard is tricked out with a deluxe fire pit, outdoor sound system and decorative boulders creating what I imagine to be a secluded prairie love grotto. I don't know for sure ... I haven't been invited over, although I am on friendly terms with his 65 pound bulldog, Diesel. Such are the circles I run in. 

So the Husband and I were nestled all snug in our bed, reading our novels (mine, an engaging Ian Rankin mystery) when we realized we had shuffled into the new year. When you try to celebrate every day as special, I believe it is acceptable to skip the obvious and overdone celebrations. 

So, Happy New Year! We did mark the day with a family outing to our local zoo which has had a bumper crop of new additions in the zoo nursery.  A baby giraffe, aardvark (it is unexpectedly cute!), orangutan, and 3 lion cubs including a rare white cub.  

Even the Husband was undone by the adorableness of so many babies. (Penguins are prepping for their new babies.)

I took advantage of the surprise appearance of the Sun for a special new year's portrait:

As is my custom, I have rooted about for my word or intention for 2015. I feel drawn to the notion of Connection (or rooted) which had been manifesting midway through the previous year.  One thing I've been consciously invoking is a sense of Home within myself and also feeling a new attachment and appreciation for the landscape that I have inhabited but never really considered mine.  Until this year. 

So I want to deepen that Connection to this place that does nurture and inform who I am, as well as the spaces within me that hold all I truly need to explore for growth and learning.  All of my life I have been an excellent student.  I love syllabi and reading lists and a structure for learning.  But there comes a point when the filling filling filling is too much.  I am so over gathering from other people's gardens.  Without planning it, life has been emptying me out and now that I have few commitments, it is time for me to fill from within; to cultivate the seeds I've already gathered and see what they grow into. I am ready to sink into MY life and harvest what is mine.

Another concept is calling to me and that is Simplicity.  I excel at complicating things and a long-held belief of mine is that it (whatever IT may be) must be complicate to be worthwhile ... that the true wisdom is hard-earned and esoteric and difficult to attain.  Really?  Um ... perhaps not?  At least, it is worth trying the route of Simplicity and see where it leads me.

So rather than making lists of accomplishments, goals, ambitions for myself in the coming year, I want to simply step forward into each day and seek what lies within.  Oh, I have ideas and projects whispering in my ear ... and I am good about getting things done.  But I think for me the challenge -  the shift or new move - will be to stay open and resist my natural tendency to seek and fill. There is a term for this fear of empty spaces - horror vacui  - a decidedly Victorian attribute (think of their living spaces) - and I am willing to stand in a more Zen space and await what bubbles up from within. 

Perhaps a more accurate description is answering the call that originates within me; to follow the energy and to be focused upon what feeds curiosity, feeds the inner fire, feeds love.  Too often I take on tasks that sap my energy, pull me out of my center.  Instead I want to feed what feeds me: feeds my spirit, my family, my art, my home. A feeding frenzy I suppose?!

I've noticed that the past year I was attentive to the geese that pass over our house.  Whenever I hear their honking, I rush to my back door and step outsides. I love to hear the sound of their call, the sounds of their wings flapping, and I pay attention to what direction they are headed.  Lately it has been West and Northwest: the direction of release and wisdom. The direction of flow and stillness.

I will take my cue from the wild geese.  I've got plenty at home to keep me busy and I am looking forward to cooking up a homey stew.

Connection ... Home ... Family ... Friends ... Simplicity ... Ease ... lots to play with in the coming year.  Much to dig into and much to welcome.  xo