Eclectic Muddlehood

New Year’s Day.  The first day of this year inspires the same personal ritual as it has for the past seven.  I rummage around on my bookshelf and dig out a salmon pink, rectangular treasure, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, by Sarah Ban Breathnach.  I adore this book and the promises of wonder it holds, but I have proved to be a bit of a flighty traveller of the path in the past.  I always seem to allow life to cut in and have yet to finish the dance with it all the way through the year.  This year, I am trying a little something different.  Actually, two little somethings.  First off, I have joined a group of women online who are interested in pursuing the treasures within these pages together.  I am always more motivated and dedicated to things when there is someone committed alongside me.  Secondly, in case you hadn’t deduced it on your own yet, I am adding my Simple Abundance adventures to my buffet of blogging material. 

Today’s reading calls me to ponder and declare the “aspirations of my heart,”  the hopes and dreams I have for the coming year, in that giving them form and substance will be the first step in calling upon myself “Authentic Self” and the Divine to bring them alive.  What would I like to do this year?  What do I want to look back next New Year’s Day and sigh with contentment about accomplishing?  I want to write a book (or two), one fiction and one not.  I’ve had these two outlines for two totally different projects knocking around in my head for some time now, but they have yet to manifest themselves on paper.  I want to create in the kitchen again like I use to prior to the twin’s birth.  I long for beautiful, deliciously delectable dishes infused with light and love, crafted by me for myself and my family.  The cooking from mixes and convenience foods that crash landed in my kitchen postpartum has gone on far too long.  It is time for me to reclaim the sacred ground that is my hearth.  I want to take my knitting and crocheting to a more advanced level, maybe taking a class here and there at a local yarn store and venturing into the uncharted territory of fair isle, intarsia, pattern design and yee-gads, maybe even socks!  In conjunction with this desire is the hope that I can get my Etsy shop really going during the coming year, as well.  In addition to these major aspirations, I have a few smaller hopes still worthy of mention.  Two generous women from our church offer free classes in yoga and gypsy dancing.  I hope to take Kindy Girl to yoga on a weekly basis and I hope to run away to dance with the gypsies all by my lonesome at least once a month.   I hope for continued success with the children and our adventures in home education.  And I hope for continued growth in my relationship with Big Daddy.  So there they are, large and small, for all the world to see.

I encourage you to also take some time for yourself today and consider listening to the quiet murmuring of your inner self.  What are your aspirations for the year ahead?  You are always welcome along this path.  Join the journey!  Happy New Year!