Happy New Day
I wish we would celebrate every day like new year’s eve + new year’s day.
My happy place on my walk.
I love this short time of year. I get easily wrapped up in the end-of-year reflections and dreaming, feeling quite cozied up in this place of contemplation.
And then when the first days of the new year come along, I’m inspired, hopeful, and action-oriented.
And then….well, …. life.
But as we all know, the changing of the calendar from one year to the next means nothing more than the changing of this minute to the next one.
Every single freaking minute can, in theory, be an opportunity for a “new year celebration”.
Today,
right now,
you get to choose who you are and how you will express that self.
This movement between self-awareness (that fun reflection, dreaming, contemplation part) and self-expression (that inspiration, that movement, the action) is LIVING, baby!
There’s something about the changing year that adds extra oomph, extra power, extra perceived importance to this way of being. But things are ALWAYS changing!
Right freaking now. And now. And NOW.
And because of that, you have the chance to creatively engage with any moment you want.
You have the opportunity to dream and do and dream and do and repeat for as long as you are fortunate to breathe.
I was thinking about this cycle recently while on one of my walks. (Here’s mom-mode for you: I was thinking about this in relation to getting my kid to clean his room.)
I had this beautiful metaphor come to mind - this metaphor about choosing to dance (with the scenario visualized in my middle-school gym, one of those room-darkened, Friday night special dances where the whole place stinks like sweet sweat? Ew, I know.)
The main message that came to mind was stop fighting against life.
I had this image of life holding out its hand and saying, “let’s dance” and offering (sometimes insisting) to show you how to move. And you, dear friend, all-too-often just sit there on the bleachers and refuse.
Dancing with life requires learning and engaging. The music still plays on whether or not you choose to move.
When you finally make the choice to get out on the dance floor, shuffling your feet with anxiety in your stomach and sweaty palms, life dances in ways you never could have expected.
As it turns out, life just wanted you as a partner. You are the one who actually gets to lead most of the time. There aren’t any right ways to dance. Instead, it’s just about participating.
Of course, there are others on the dance floor. And you’ll bump into one another. Some may be trying to do the tango while you are working on a waltz. That’s part of it, life says. We are all in this together, finding our own rhythms.
As you expand your awareness, you watch the dances of others and learn how to flow in between and with them. You hear the music, which you discover responds to your movements!
It isn’t always easy, but it’s always worth it.
Take a deep breath.
Now take another.
How freaking lucky are you to be here to do that - to breathe, to “dance”? Today and each day after, when things are joyful and when they are so fucking hard that you can’t move out of bed,
breathe.
Remember that the next moment is a new moment.
Feel yourself in this moment, expand your awareness to the sky or contract it to focus on your own beating heart. Rest or move and express yourself in the world however you are authentically being called to do.
If you are struggling with this or intrigued and want MORE, come meet with me. Work with me.
Let’s develop an empowering photography session that allows you to explore who you are and to feel safe and encouraged to EXPRESS that self…to be seen in the powerful beauty of who you are.
With love and wishes for the most magical of new years, and new days, and new moments….
