Ready for a Really Happy New Year?

Over the last year I really found myself thinking about how much thought and energy we (meaning me and people in general) put into harboring the hurts of life. When a disaster or tragedy strikes we cling to those events, memorialize them, the slogan becomes "Never Forget." We regard joy as fleeting. The "pursuit of happiness" ironically is one of our "inalienable rights" as Americans and as human beings. But do we actually pursue happiness or find joy in our everyday lives? Not so much.

As I began to think about this and inspect my own life I saw that I probably focused on the unhappy moments in my life far more than the happy and I realized I could change this. One of my inspirations came from the words of Steve Erwin's young daughter, Bindy, who answered questions about her father's death with an amazing reversal of a phrase we've all heard dozens of times: "All bad things must come to an end." So much wisdom in that reversal.

In life we find what we are looking for; what we want to find, we find. I really believe this to be true. I am in charge of my thinking; it took me a while to recognize this. I can remember being told once, "Just don't think about it." I thought, "That's the problem. If I could stop thinking about it, I wouldn't be having this problem." Our brains get stuck on the neural pathways that get used the most, and the more they get used the more automatically the neurons fire, and the more we get stuck having the same thought patterns over and over, often making us crazy.

The good news is that we can change that by thinking new thoughts repetatively and forging new neural pathways that fire more often than the old ones. If we begin looking for the good and focusing on the joy in our lives we will find more of it. We will become happier people just by thinking new, happier thoughts. If you meditate you know that your thoughts want to go on their merry way. You're trying to find inner peace and your thoughts are working on the grocery list and what a bitch the person was who went into the Express line with 60 items in her cart. You bring your thoughts back to the inner peace project, only to have your thoughts begin to meditate on the bills. Correct the course again. After you've been meditating for a while it gets easier, you're creating a groove in your brain literally, that begins to limit the romping thoughts and inner peace begins to happen.

Is thinking differently going to stop bad things from happening? Is this just putting on rose-colored glasses? Bad things will happen; we have a choice about what we will continue to carry further on in our lives and what we let go of for the sake of being happier and more joyous every day. See the bad thing for what it is, a mistake, a loss, even a deep painful hurt that we didn't deserve; how long are we willing to nurture the pain within us at the expense of living a better life?

Healing takes time but how much time is within our control. We will need to give our healing the time it requires but draw a line when tending to a real need turns into stewing in the same old juices of sadness or anger. Bring the new thinking forward by remembering good times, happy memories, or doing something in the immediate moment to create a new happy moment to call upon. "All bad things must come to an end," will be my new mantra for 2012, and my new slogan? "Never Forget to Be Happy!"

Happy New Year-Again!

A year ago I started on a new adventure with the Sketchbook Challenge. While I haven't been quite as participatory as I would have liked, it was the kick off to a whole new direction and self-discovery. It got the ball rolling and the ball will keep rolling because there's just no stopping it now! I am growing in all the right ways for myself to be and become the person I know I can be.

New Year's is always a time to reassess and revise the life plan. Am I headed in the direction I want to be going? Do I have what I want in my life? Has my life been better in the past year than in years past? So many changes have happened and are in the works that I feel especially optimistic about what lies ahead. I feel as if I am in a growth spurt of major proportions! Yay, for growing every day into better and better beings!

Who knew the "Golden Years" could be the best part? Granted one ear no longer works and I can't read, paint, draw or sew without my glasses, a few joints are cranky, but for the most part everything works reasonably well. This year I am trying to quantify my resolutions in some way, set goals and be able to check them off my to do list, in place of the vague "Be happier" "Make more art" "Work out more." This year it's go to the actual quilt spreadsheet and pick up where each thing got left off, beginning with the ones that are sandwiched and now need to be quilted but for some reason have been set aside. Finish what has been started and move on to greener and brighter pastures.

Yes, I have a quilt spreadsheet with a whole lot of quilts on it (and 2 or 3 more to be added to it). I used to tease my daughter for her spreadsheets and then one day I saw that I was over-doing the quilt planning and needed to get a handle on all these projects. So, after eating the platter of crow, I made a spreadsheet for quilts in progress, where each one was in its journey from fabric to quilt and it really makes life much simpler all around. I may never have all these quilts made but anyone who needs to pick up where I left off would know where to begin on every one. (Not that I think any one would, but they could.)

2011 has had its fair share of challenges and achievements-it's the first year I actually finished quilting 6 quilts, none mine or for me, and made excellent headway on one of my own (which I could finish before the new year if I get with it, there's a nice goal). 2012 has so much promise for being the best year ever-but don't they all from this angle? I say go for it!!

Full Moon Eve

It's almost the full moon and tonight I will most likely perform my personal monthly ritual. It's very uncomplicated and has no pomp or circumstance to it but I like doing it most months. Some months I don't hit exactly the night I want and a couple of times I've missed altogether but to miss only a couple of times in the many years I've been doing it, I have to give myself a back pat and say, Good on ya, mate!



The ritual is very simple: in my house are a couple of bowls of water, one in the entryway and another in my sewing room. Their purpose is to collect negative energy, unpleasantness, my cursing fits and whatnot. I started doing this when my husband and I were divorcing and I wanted to clear out his visits. (I also have a chunk of snowflake obsidian near the doorway bowl to also deal with negative energy. Stones and crystals are for another post.) It provides a tangible focus to remember  to watch my energy, what I put out and what I allow in. On or about a full moon night, preferably with clear skies so the moon is very bright, I pour the water into a house plant, returning the water to earth, refill the bowls and place them in a window to allow the moon to "charge" the water. In the early morning I put the bowls back in their places and I'm good to go for the next month.

While I'm doing this I focus on the task's purpose. I don't have any ritual words and I don't cast a circle or anything like that. I just focus on my intention for the water. I could go all ceremonial if I wanted, don robes, light candles, honor the four directions, elements, all that jazz, but then the task becomes onerous and very likely not done. So I keep it simple, honor the intention I'm setting and move on.

One reason I also do this is because I have a secret crush on the moon. I live out in the country where the moon pours an ethereal light over all when it's full. How do city people even know what the moon is up to? Keeping tabs on the moon reminds me of what I'm about somehow. It is so beautiful, silvery, mysterious, the moon speaks to something in me that is also beautiful and mysterious. How would I stay reminded about that if I didn't experience moonlight falling across my bed, pouring in the windows, creating a magic world outside so different from the light of day? Moon, I love you. May we all shine on!