Last night I went to a 1930s ball. I wore a long black dress, red lipstick and a furry shrug. There was laughter and music and dancing and human slinkies and it was exactly what I want 2011 to be like. Unexpected. Alive. Fun. Vibrant. Full of people.
I do not have resolutions for 2011. I have lived by rules for far too long as it is, and they are a bit too similar for me. I do, however, have dreams and hopes and a whole list of things I’d like to do. It’s what got me motivated for Day One (which is now day three); and what I’m going to try and capture here, should I forget….
Because I would like 2011 to be jampacked full of new adventures and experiences. To be a time where I make up for the lost ground and explore the world unseriously. To be about pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone further and further so that the possibilities, which are already awesome, keep emerging, and I am never quite sure what will be next.
And, I would like 2011 to be about looking, again, at some of the rules and assumptions that I have been living by and seeing if they really stack up. To be about asking whether I wear, or say, or do, xx because I feel or should – or because I want to? – and then seeing if I can work out a way of being that feels like me.
All of me -
The good, the bad, and every shade in between.
- because authenticity comes, with adventure, as one of my 2011 words; and is, I am beginning to learn, the key to self acceptance, and wrapped up with empathy which I want to feel in abundance because -
2011 is about people. It is about connections. It is about getting over my nerves of that first introduction and remembering that we are all human and I am okay, usually, when the conversation starts. It is about looking beyond me. About learning to trust. About remembering that we all have our own stuff. About maybe finding love, if I’m lucky, but loving regardless of whether it comes back.
And, alongside this (while I’m throwing it all out there) I also want to start the new blog I have been talking about; wear over the knee socks with boots; learn a dance and overcome my two left feet; eat some of the things that I am still afraid of…
And never forget, when it gets hard, how much I love life.
Wishing you all the very best for 2011.
