Starting Up, Starting Over

On New Year's Day I had time (like many of the rest of us, from the statistics) to go around and catch up on blog reading, write a few notes to friends and family, pick up the house a bit...you know, all that stuff that's been neglected or postponed. There's still plenty to do, but I can see the world starting up again. Yesterday as we came up to the studio there was absolutely no one on the streets -- no one! Today, not as much movement as usual, and not all the shops and offices were open, but people were definitely out and about.

I managed to drop my camera sometime near Christmas, and it stopped focussing -- so there will be fewer pictures here for a bit, while my beloved Canon S95 is out for repairs. J. has been generous about lending me his, and I've got my phone...

One of the blogs I visited recently was Seon Joon's. I met her online in the early days of blogging, and then, not long after, she moved to Korea and became a Buddhist nun. She now has a blog again, where she posts near-daily "small stones," an occasional excellent photograph, and longer pieces about her life, and I can't recommend it highly enough: her wisdom, humor, directness, and good sense always delight and inspire me.This quote of hers caught my attention yesterday, and seems a good way to begin the new year:

"I fall down way more than I stand up; but Zen Master Seung Sahn, who is one of my root teachers, always said, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.” Well, here I am, falling down again. And laughing, while I get back up. That’s life. That’s living."

And while we're visiting websites, fans of Teju Cole's writing might want to check these links to 12 essays he wrote in 2012.

---

I'm not a person who makes resolutions on January 1, but I do spend some time reflecting back, and thinking forward. Here are some of the odd thoughts I've had about the months ahead: 

Continue teaching/leading meditation and developing and recommitting to my own daily practice

Focus my online energy on this blog, and otherwise into real-time life, work, and relationships; either get off social media entirely or limit time spent there

Do something with my Iceland manuscript and drawings

Continue and build on the artwork focus of last year

Just do the best work I can, without comparing, or competing for attention

Get outside and walk every day

Read more this year (I've got a good list started)

Explore some new recipes, and have people over more regularly

Drink more tea, less coffee (it's all decaf for me, anyway)

Take advantage of more cultural opportunities in the city

Get out of the city more often

Be optimistic: "Fall down seven times, get up eight!"

What about you?

Comments

[Marja-Leena]

Lovely post and list. I never do resolutions but tend to make weekly or whatever lists especially when extra busy. Looking at yours for the year, I think I'd include quite a few of the same on mine were I to do one. Much success to you this year, Beth!

[Troy]

Excellent list of resolutions. Good luck! I hope you achieve them all!

[john]

i checked out Seon Joon's blog and i like her as well.Thanks for the link

[Natalie]

Beth, I have to smile while reading your resolution list because it so resembles the ones I make..or used to make. The more time goes by, the shorter my lists become and I'm aiming to cut down to one res only or better still, zero res. The trouble with resolutions is that they are a form of judgement, a disguised kind of scolding, which is really saying that we're not living up to expectations, not quite making the grade. For me it's a Judge's voice in my head and I'm beginning to feel I can tell it to shut up. Better to simply plunge in to whatever absorbs me and if that means missing out on all the other things that would/should be on the list,well,so be it!
Happy New Year dear friend, may it be bright and beautiful.

[Seon Joon]

*blush*

Thank you, Beth!

[Mary]

Beth,
I love the "fall down seven times, get up eight" quote. Perfect to start this new year. Hoping the year ahead is full of light!

[Vivian]

Oh hello Beth
I have my own list which is probably still incomplete but this morning I realized I had not yet prayed any intercessions for anybody, which used to be part of my daily practice, and was something I wanted to begin being more faithful to this year...and as I sat there with the list in my lap (a list of family, some friends, parish folk and needs, people I have promised to pray for, etc,) I found myself "adjusted" in my spiritual posture, so that what I had thought of as a chore/ a should, in Nathalie's language an implicit judgment/ became instead a doorway into a different way of being with both God and the individuals whose needs I had wanted to carry. Something eased in me, it became not at all a task or a burden but instead a calm way of being. This is not the way it usually is, I can only think that somehow my wanting so much to be more faithful carried the practice a bit further in than I was used to reaching, I hope you will sometimes... it's never always of course... experience being smiled upon for your own fidelities during this new year!