Anti-Resolutions

Last year Dale from Write Anything shared his list of Anti-Resolutions to bring the New Year in. He has shared another list with us this year.

I had an attempt at it last year but they all just came off sounding sappy, naff or both so I never got around to compiling my list of Anti-Resolutions. This year I'm up for it.

1. I will not buy a Barmix for the expressed purpose of blending my vomit in the sink so it slides more easily down the plug hole.

2. I will not take up a highly paid position with Phillip Morris and in essence sell my soul to the devil. Nor will I sell it to his hench men at Monsanto, Tate & Lyle, Nestle or GalaxoSmithKline

3. I will not sell my son into slavery in a salt mine (though he'd better watch himself!)

4. I will not buy a box of wanky highbrow literature to fill my book shelves with and pretend I know something about all of them.

5. I will not buy a pair of exotic and ridiculously expensive high heels shoes to traverse the streets of Brisbane in.

6. I will not poo in the pool.

7. I will not secretly store and freeze my partners semen and sell it on the blackmarket to desperate lesbian couples and single women who can't get access to reproductive assistance in australia.

8. I will not drink scotch and pretend that I like it just so I can look cultured.

9. I will not keep my house spick and span so that I can be the model housewife.

10. I will not suggest to my partner that a relocation to the Democratic Republic of the Congo sounds like a fun and exciting prospect for our family.

What you put on your list of Anti-Resolutions?

Dark Moon decluttering

The Moon is currently waning - that is slowly disappearing in our skies, waiting to be born anew on Tuesday.

I've been taking full advantage of the energy to clear out stuff - my email inbox has been attacked, resorted, new rules applied and mountains of emails simply culled to the deleted box ... and it feels good.

My work station/desk/office is in the throes of being re modelled. Whilst I probably wont get as far as building a new mini bookshelf for the desk, I'm hauling all the HMA stuff off, putting it in a box and handing it over on Monday. As for the rest of it ... its also in a box (which a few more pieces to follow tomorrow) so I can give the desk a good wipe down and start afresh. I want to make room for the my desk tidy that Dylan and Dave lovingly created for me for my birthday.

The next on my hit list in the bedroom - reduce the piles of clothing stacked on drawers to zero and rebuild my altar - though that could possibly wait until the new moon.

Anyway - I am well aware that this is the second last (penultimate) dark moon before the Chinese New Year (my new year) and lots has to be moved, shipped off, burnt, thrown out, au revoired .. you get my point. For me the New Year hasn't really begun ... and this limbo land, betwixt (I've always wanted to use that word) two years is a great time to let it all go.

The Age of Authenticity

Authenticity: (Noun) The quality or condition of being authentic, trustworthy, or genuine

While New Years Resolutions are a good guide or map as to the direction in which you want to travel in the following year, they are often so discrete that they don't give much room to move. You're either 'doing it' or you're 'not doing it' ... in which case often before the end of January the gym membership is already gathering cobwebs in your wallet/purse, the fridge is full of chocolate again, or in a weak moment you've had a cigarette/fought with your sibling ... you get the gist.

I've always liked to set resolutions that could be built on over time, some that were achieveable in the immediate term, some in the short term, others in the long term. After all - you dont just build a house ... foundations need to be laid, a structure erected so and so forth. Small victories lead in to larger ones further down the track.

This year rather than scribe a massive list of things that I want to do, achieve, give up etc ... I've picked a theme - authenticity. It's a term that seems to be appearing more and more often in my thoughts and my personal writing. I want to be authentic to myself this year - to my character, to my family, to my idiosyncracies, to my ethics and morals, to my dreams and ambitions, to my mind and body, to my feelings and emotions ... and more importantly to my soul.

To begin walking a path of authenticity, I've realised that there is much that I need to shed from the past few years. This wont be a process that will be totally complete by Chinese New Year (7th February) but while the moon is waning* its time for me to consider what needs to be let go of ... and not just in terms of responsiblities, work committments, but in terms of ego ... what I need to relinquish or at least identify within me that no longer works.

Anger keeps bubbling up ... which reminds me that part of being authentic is acknowledging and working with my shadow self. This is a challenge as its socially sanctioned to keep these negative sides of ourselves underwraps. But I think that I am ready and willing to rise to this challenge.

If you could bless your coming year with a one word theme, what would it be?

*the waning moon phase is a time of decay, and a returning to the earth. It's a good time to dispose, shed or bid farewell to anything that is not currently working in your life. It's what helps to lay fertile ground (think of a compost!) for the coming month. It's also a great time to weed your garden, give your pets a flea treatment, etc.

The Pause Between

I'm quite relieved in a way to have said farewell to 2007. Whilst it wasn't a bad year per se, and lots of fantastic things did happen, including a number of wonderful people who crossed my path for the first time and us moving into our first home ... it was a tough year of soul work and I am glad that as a chapter, it is finished and filed away in the book of my life. I'm feeling refreshed (despite a wee dram or five of frangelico last night and a cumulative sleep total of about five hours - stretched across two sessions) and definitely feeling ready over the next few weeks to really end a few things in readiness to begin completely anew at the Chinese New Year (which falls on the second New Moon after the Winter Solstice (Nth Hemisphere) or the Summer Solstice (Sth Hemisphere). This year it is the 7th February.

I like to think of the time between our New Year and that of the Chinese New Year as a period to reflect on what was in the year gone and what I want to manifest in the following year. With birthdays and Christmas often overshadowing and eating up most of the energy leading up to the 1st January celebrations ... I more often than not don't get a chance to do justice to the period of reflection and foresight that I would like. So these next few weeks are my pause between!

I've already begun to think about ways in which I want to manifest authenticity and truth in my life this coming year. Dave and I were talking today about getting our life back into more of a routine, not just for our sakes but for Dylan's. Getting our evening more organised will allow us to go for a walk after dinner (something we all really need) and for Dylan to be able to get to bed at a decent hour.

Walking tonight, through the sporadic light rain was relaxing and with Dylan absorbed in watching the world pass by from his pram (as a three and half year old he loves it - but as a baby you could not get him in there no matter how hard you tried or desperately wanted him to be in there!) Dave and I got a chance to just chat .... something I realised that we rarely get the opportunity to do.

Which brings me to the whole idea of busy-ness. This year I want to get back to basics and strip back all the clutter from our lives - well at least from my life. I got the lesson last year, that I medicate myself on being busy, with horrid characteristic of being a workaholic all to present in myself and my approach to the world ... and its going to stop this year. As I've mentioned previously I am downsizing, to the point of non existance all of my volunteer work with the Home Midwifery Association and with birth reform in general - after three years its time for a rest. The focus, outside of the family will be on developing and nurturing my writing and other creative endeavours (like getting my sewing machine out, taking pottery and belly dancing classes, and perhaps embarking on the collage that's been buzzing around in my head for what seems like forever!)

This feels great - actually it feels better than great - it feels like freedom, which as a Sagittarian, is the main thing that underwrites my sanity and ability to function in the world.

And I've made a pledge to myself that I will write every day and I will blog everyday. Blogging was the birth place of this phase of my writing career and as such I wish to honour and pay hommage to it each day. Like dropping by to light a candle!

All that said ... its time to crawl into bed and catch up on some of that much needed sleep .... ahhhh, the sweet surrender of sleep.

PS: the only Anti Resolution that I came up with was "I will not go shopping naked!"