By Lynda Shadbolt
Happy New Year to everyone! I am wishing all of you the very best for a healthy and love-filled year!
A friend sent me a quote that said 2022 is like a book with 12 chapters and 365 pages and that she hoped that I would write the most beautiful story possible for myself this year. That was a lovely wish to receive! Over the years I have welcomed a new year with many different rituals. Of course I have done the New Year’s resolutions many times almost always related to losing weight and or giving up sugar or alcohol. I have never stuck to any of them. I’ve learned that moderation is always the way for me. I’ve created vision boards with pictures of things I want to have happen that year. This was fun and gave me some big picture ideas for the year. This year my approach is a simple one. I have been asking myself over and over, how do I want to grow in 2022? What is really inspiring me and what do I want to say yes to in 2022? I think for quite a while I have been priding myself on “enduring” this pandemic and was proud of myself for doing so well at it.
For the first year of the pandemic I kept waiting for things to go back to normal. I, like many others, realize now that there is a new normal that is going to keep evolving and I want to evolve with it. I want to grow with it. And of course the beauty is that we can all grow differently in our own ways. A friend recently told me she wanted to grow her physical activity in 2022. She wants to be strong enough to walk with joy and enthusiasm and she is taking steps to make that happen. I have recently been inspired by many creative people in my life. I’ve watched yoga, meditation and teachers of all kinds grow their business online in huge ways. I’ve watched my sister teach herself how to make beautiful, one-of-a-kind cork purses and wallets and sell them online. I have a good friend who creates non-stop. She is always knitting, painting, sewing and baking. I am very creative in the way that I teach and in the lessons that I plan and I love that. But I want to do more with my hands. I don’t know how it will look, or what I will even do yet.
What I do know is that I am going to make time every day to even just doodle in my journal and trust that it will take me somewhere. It’s like a garden. If I plant creative seeds something will grow. And I’m just doing this for myself. I’m not making stuff with the intention to sell. I’m making it with the intention to know myself better in 2022. I hope you grow in the ways that you are inspired to this year.
