As the Year Turns

The Broerenkerk in Bolsward, NL.

No one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins,
and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.  (Mark 2:22)

Sometimes I just want to tear everything down, sweep everything out, and start all over again!

In Dutch, when the New Year arrives, it’s called jaarwisseling:  turning of the year.  What I want to do this year is grab it by the collar and turn it completely upside down.

I’ve come to that tipping turning point when I’m sick and tired of many things from last year(s):   ASSumptions.  Expectations.  Jealousies.  Comparing.  Analyzing.  Judging.  Criticizing.  Calculating.  Keeping score.  Taking notes.  Guessing.  Being offended.  Taking things personally.  ASSumptions.

What did So-and-So mean when she said that?  Why didn’t she say “Thank You?”  I’m not a gourmet cook like she is…and that embarrasses me because…???  She Liked and Commented on So-and-So’s post but not mine.  What does that mean?  When did she get to be the judge of good photography?  How come they chose her and not me?  She is so poetic.  Why can’t I be like her?

And on and on it goes.  Those voices in the head.  The devils on the shoulder.  Whispering.  Always whispering.

Some of us have already talked about this.  Was it the same before the internet?  Before social media?  When did it all start?  At school?  Home?  In our religious up-bringing?

Always competing.  Always comparing.  Always thinking I’m less than.  Always wanting to be someone I’m not and never understanding why.

Me Me Me Me Me Me Me.  It’s always about ME.

I WANT SOME NEW WINE!  But you can’t pour it into old wineskins, says Holy Writ.  You’ve got to “turn the year” and start with something new. 

Love your neighbor as yourself.  Nothing new about that! 

Have you ever thought about why it takes us so dang long to love ourselves and be comfortable in our own skin?  Shouldn’t we have it down pat by now?  I think it’s a conspiracy to keep us from doing what’s important…like loving the world and trying to make a difference in it, wherever we are.

And so in these early days of a new, turned year, I am dead set on standing up to those little devils who get away with murder.  I love and accept myself just the way I am.  I love and accept you just the way you are.  (Which doesn’t mean I’m okay with either one of us getting away with murder, by the way.)

And when I bow with my Namaste to you, I do not compare or judge or chide…either one of us.  No one is asking "who’s better?”  But if you are the one, then Hallelujah.

IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, Ginnie!  Which is why my intention for 2014 is:  To be concerned about my own achievements less and about the success of others more. 

Everyone wins!  Everyone scores!  Everyone is good enough!  Everyone is…better than good enough!

So, let’s all turn the year—this year—completely upside down, in whatever ways we need it, personally or collectively.  Let’s open some new bottles of wine and throw out the old wineskins. 

HELLO, 2014!  Are you ready for us?

Our Shoppe Gallery

While celebrating our weekends, and in the spirit of our global collaboration and community of support, we are featuring our personal art as 'Vision to Verb' notecards. 

Our hope is that they'll inspire you to join with us in our support of KIVA - empowering people around the world with start-up business loans.

 

 

 

The Dash Between the Bling-Bling

Okay, since we've been talking about textures lately, how's this for going over the top!  BUT I do have a point, so get over it for a minute and think about what happens between Christmas and New Years....

It's just one week!  One week between two of our biggest Bling-Bling holidays of the entire year, perhaps winding us down and then up again more than any other week of the year.  Maybe?

I'm guessing all of us who have or have had kids off from school remember this week as vacation time.  It was a no-brainer, if we worked, to make sure we, too, were on vacation, if allowed.  Most of the time we'd take the kids back to Michigan to be with my family at the cottage.  It was family time and full of wonderful memories.  If we were lucky, we got snow, something we didn't get in California or Georgia.  And at one point during the week, usually on the New Year's end, we'd share a family Christmas of sorts with a big feast.  Then we'd fly back home, usually just before the ball dropped on the new year.

I didn't grow up going to New Year's Eve parties.  In fact, more often than not I was sound asleep in bed before the clock struck midnight on the last day of the year.  I had already said nighty-night to one year and fully expected the new year to be there when I awoke.  No fanfare.  No hoopla.  No bling.

However, I know I'm the exception to the rule...until this past New Years when the seniors here in our retirement community helped me make up for lost time.  And it'll happen again this year when we'll all bring in the New Year together long past midnight.   I look at some of these 70 and 80-year-olds and can just imagine what kind of life they once lived.  They know how to live and are teaching me.

But I digress.  This week in-between!  It usually means a week of rest and sleep, right?  A time to just relax and let things go.  No need to clean things up after the Christmas festivities.   The mess is okay, for once, especially if the kids are home.  We're willing to let things go for a change, to wind down and not be so Type A.  Maybe we even get to play with our special Christmas present we hoped Santa would bring...and did.

Now, back to the image and textures.  I know it looks totally depressing, which is not how I envision the dash between the bling-bling.  Rather, I was thinking instead of the gray days of winter, when the snow is no longer there/fresh/white and things seem kinda, well, blah.  Not blah in a negative, depths-of-despair way, but just blah.  The kind of blah that happens when after all the hubbub you don't know what else to do but take a nap.  A nap sounds good, right?

So in case you need permission to just be blah and veg out a bit, live in the dash between the bling-bling and let yourself go.  We probably should do it more often but my personal feeling is this is the one week of the year gifted to us to simply wind down, expect nothing, and coast into the New Year.  After all we did last week/year, don't you think we deserve it...we women of a certain age?!