hope for the new year

So it is the week after Christmas and with it comes the startling realization that the house is a cluttered mess and the Christmas tree must come down and I really need to try to make it through the next few days eating minimal amounts of chocolate.

In a fit of organization I began cleaning my desk area which is a bit of a black hole or black heap - however you choose to look at it. I had, up until today, entertained the notion that if I replaced my desk with a new one – one with more storage areas, more baskets, more pen holder things - that it would be utterly organized, functional, and thus, beautiful. I now understand that was wishful thinking. My work area could achieve that level of organization only if I never worked in it, which would rather defeat its purpose. In the midst of this misguided project I discovered a note card with the most wonderful forgotten little quote (Thank you, JannieLynn, for introducing it to me in the first place). So I quit my compulsive fit of cleaning to consider for a moment these beautiful words so full of hope:

It is never too late to be who you might have been. – George Eliot

There are many things that stand in the way of embracing life and our place in it but I think the most devastating and insidious of these obstacles is hopelessness. And so as a new year begins my wish for myself, my wish for you too, is that each day would be filled with hope.

And in that sentiment, I return to my desk.

foolish anticipation

Soon, very soon, I will be making a complete fool of myself at our church Christmas party. I do not think I can adequately express just how much I am looking forward to this. Part of it has to do with the fact that I dreamed up this skit (a silly version of Dancing with the Stars) and just want to see it through to completion, that is the obsessive “artist” in me. I place “artist” in quotes because this parody will not resemble art; however, my brain is mush and I cannot think of a more appropriate word. But mostly I think my eagerness stems from the fact that I spend 364 days of each year trying rather desperately not to make a fool of myself. Tomorrow I will have official permission from myself to be completely ridiculous. I should do that more often.