Baby of a New Year ~ What 2018 Has Taught Me

When I saw this picture of my great niece, I knew I found the image for my New Years blog. Using a baby as a symbol for a new year began in 600 B.C with the Greeks. A baby represents rebirth and the story goes that the Baby New Year will grow throughout the year into Father Time. At the end of the year, Father Time will hand over his responsibilities to the next Baby New Year.

Fun facts for sure, and perhaps by now people accustomed to my blogs have noticed that I’m making a concerted effort to keep this light. It’s been a heavy year for many, and a gorgeous baby holding a champagne glass against her innocent lips is one way to balance that out. As this little angel blissfully closes in on the first year of her life, her Great Aunt is reaching into her creativity sack to find something worthwhile to post that has hope without naivety, positivity without obnoxiousness, and something people will want to read and in some small way feel better after having done so.

If you’ve read so far, then perhaps you might be interested in my new take on a new years greeting. Rather than summing up accomplishments and all the things in the world that we need to beware of, I thought I’d wrap my brand of gratitude with what 2018 has taught me.

This year I learned that writing songs with purpose feeds me and challenges me to do my best most important work. I’m reminded that books and stories are a source of salvation and deep comfort, and music is a language I love to paint with and long to continue to practice.

I realized this year that my journey of motherhood requires an ever opening heart and balance of healthy boundaries. That my mom was a soulmate and bedrock of connection that I will probably never replace, but that I can breathe in her spirit and love my daughter as I was loved. That I can conjure my mothers calm and teach from that space where her wisdom remains.

I learned that expressing oneself and speaking ones truth about how we see the world matters, and that I can deepen my trust of how that will unfold.

And that healing as we age is complicated and I’m absolutely committed to attaining the goal of having my lifespan match my health span. And that the Shamanic toolbelt is an incredible resource for helping to actualize that.

I learned that dancing and movement lifts me and makes everything better, and that yoga and meditation continues to be an important fulcrum.

This year I learned that friends sustain me and they come and go and sadly sometimes betray. And that betrayal is something we can survive.

I deduced this year that when the world eventually dissolves into another form without such discordant values, that natural selection will seek out the conscious. And that consciousness is everything, and sometimes nothing at all.

That I am learning to define what it means to be a woman of power and influence with the intention to bear light. And that intention is quite nearly everything.

And finally that it’s time to tell my story and it will be called “Something to Sing About”.

Welcome to another beautiful baby of a new year ~ wishing all a new form of rebirth and a journey of gratitude for Father Time…..